Silent Gravity
by basketballchick13
Summary: Max is on the brink of collapse until she is paired with Fang for a Chemistry project. As Fang gets to know Max, he decides that he wants to be more than just friends, even though Maxx seems to disagree. To add to this sticky situation, Fang's dilinquint sister moves in. Max's enstranged brother starts to get closer to her best friend, Nudge, who has a secret of her own.
1. Chapter 1

**Welcome to my story...I know that this whole high school fics where Max is the outcast tough girl and Fang is the player of the school is probably over-used and cliche, but I am hoping that you will still like it. I will try to make it as original as possible, even with such a cliché story. **

Max POV

Why did he always have to do this?

Hit me.

Punch.

Kick.

Choke.

Name any physical violence that can be inflicted and my dad has done it. Burned, scratched. Hell, he's even bit me before...after a twelve pack of beer though.

God, it was becoming harder and harder to hide at school. Now he had bruised me in places that were hard to conceal with a half a bottle of concealer. There was only so much I could do to make a black eye appear as a make up haphazard mistake. But now that my forehead had a huge cut across the entire thing, the task of keeping my home life a secret seemed next to impossible.

I could ditch? No, I had already been absent seven days this month. Someone will start suspecting something and call the authorities. Last time that happened, my dad made up a bunch of lies about me hurting myself and the cops believed them because they didn't want to deal with a bunch of paper work, reporting. Plus, who would want to accuse a former marine of beating his daughter? No one in their right mind, that's who. There was no way out, no matter what I did.

The hat sitting on my dresser was my life saver today as I heard the bus rolling down my block, just about to halt at my stop. I thrust the beanie on over my head, snatched my bag and made my way outside. Running down the street, I reached the bus just in time so that the door didn't close on me. The bus driver, Ron, gave me his usual look of disapproval. I ignored it like always. Once something happens every day for a year, you get used to it, sometimes forgetting that it even happens to you from time to time.

Avoiding the stares of the kids in the back, I slipped into the third row, no one behind, in front or beside me.

As much as I attempted to avoid the attention of Fang and his posse, I somehow catch it on every inconvenient day, usually only once a week. But it's always that one day of the week they just have to make my life a living hell. They didn't exactly 'harass' me, but they didn't leave me alone, that was for sure. Just when I thought that maybe, just maybe, one of his gang members wouldn't pretend to flirt with me, Fang himself graced me with his presence. How very kind of the boy.

"How you doing?" He asked me, impersonating Joey from Friends. I have to admit that he did a pretty good job with it.

"Fine," I whispered, not trusting myself to speak at full volume without my voice breaking.

I could hear laughter from a few rows back. No, more like snickering.

"Why so shy?" He asked, putting his arm around me.

I tried to shrug it off, but he just held on to my shoulders even tighter. Ron looked back at us and rolled his eyes. He always let the guys mess with the girls until a certain point. Fang wasn't to that point just yet. But he was getting close, too close.

"Tired," I answered.

"What's up with the hat?" He asked, touching my hat with his other hand. "You're not one to wear hats."

My eyes widened in horror as I realized that he was going to pull off the hat. Before my hands could reach up to my head, he snatched the hat off my head, exposing the huge gash on my forehead. He looked at my hat and back to my head, trying to process what had just happened. Before anyone else could see what the cut, he put the hat back on my head as quickly as possible.

"What happened?" He asked, his voice hushed so that the rest of his stupid friends wouldn't hear what was going on. They had moved on to picking on another girl with braces anyways.

I hadn't exactly planned on excuse for a cut this bad, assuming that my hat would be on all day long. No one was supposed to yank it off. I could only imagine if Fang decided to follow up on this...I shuddered.

"I…" I should be a pro at coming up with excuses already, but when it mattered the most, my mind froze. No one needed to know about my life, but if there was one person in this world that I didn't want to know, it was Fang and his groupies.

"You're just klutz, aren't you, Max?" His voice was completely passive so I wasn't able to tell if he was being a smart-ass or just giving me a free pass for that day.

"Yeah," I agreed.

Without another word, he left.

"Really, a hat?" Nudge, my best friend asked. "You have the most beautiful hair and you hide it with a hat?"

I smiled. "Just felt like something different," I fibbed. "Besides, my goal in life is to not attract any attention in high school. So the hat is the perfect solution."

She rolled her eyes. I was almost afraid that she was going to pull it off as well, just like Fang had. But she didn't, just went on with gathering her books from her locker and checking her make up in her flower mirror on the side of her locker. I don't know why she wore make up in the first place, she was probably one of the prettiest girls in the school. Her foster home status, unfortunately, made her almost outcast materal.

"You're not hiding anything from me, right?" She asked me, suddenly turning serious and solemn. She knew -vaguely- that things weren't great at home, but she didn't know the extent to what my dad would do to me. She never told the authorities about me...she knew what it was like to be in a foster home, and she wasn't too sure that a foster home would be any better than what my situation was right now.

I smiled at her. "No, of course not."

She pursed her lips disapprovingly, "Uh-huh," she huffed, catching my lie as easy as she could breathe. I can't fool my best friend.

I smiled at her again, trying to prove my false innocence. Luckily the bell rang and we both had to go to first hour. Thank god, saved by the bell again. As much as I love Nudge, there's no denying that she had the attention span of a squirrel, meaning she will forget about our conversation and be talking about the student teacher in her French class the next time we see each other, right after second hour.

First hour is an English class that you don't actually do anything of any actual importance for your future life. Some rumor had it, though, that there might be something cool that the teacher had in store for us today. But honestly, I didn't want to get my hopes up, because the teacher's idea of 'fun' is also learning Romeo and Juliet by heart...which was something I already had to do as an eighth grader.

"Ladies and gentleman, you will be putting together a partner paper," Mr. Dawson announced to his first class, my class "I chose this partners very carefully to make sure that none of you will be writing about someone you already know really well."

The class seemed either repulsed or really interested by this idea of writing about someone new. If there were some people with actual depth to them, then I thought that there might be some appeal to this project, but there wasn't anyone of worth writing about in here. Hence, I was one of the disgusted ones. Besides, there wasn't anyone else that I needed to get all comfy with in here.

"First project partners," the teacher seemed to be doing a silent drum roll in his head. "Max Martinez and...Fang Rider."

**Thanks for reading! Critiquing is just as welcomed as compliments!**


	2. Chapter 2

**Soooo I really hope that you like the first chapter :). Thanks for the reviews. **

Max POV Chapter Two

Fang smirked at me, unaware of the fact that I was horrified by the thought of having him as a partner for this personal of a project.

Everyone moved by their partners mutually. On the other hand, I stayed frozen like an icicle. The grin on Fang's face slowly faded as he saw the look of disappointment on my facial expression. He slid into the chair next to mine and got out a sheet of paper from his binder.

"What's wrong, afraid that you'll fall for me, Max?" He teased me, trying to lighten the mood a little bit, but failing epically.

I shook my head, coughing. "You wish."

"Hey, hey, hey, I'm not that bad once you get to know me," he defended.

I took a deep breath and took out a pencil. "Let's just get this project done as quickly as possible."

He looked like a lost puppy that had just been kicked in the stomach. "Okay, whatever."

This was the first time in my life that I had ever seen Fang so…human, so real.

Nudge greeted me at my locker after second period. She held out a piece of gum, the same kind that she was chewing loudly and popping bubbles with. I took it, grateful to have that nasty metallic taste I'd had in my mouth since I found out I was working with Fang on that goddamn project.

"Are the rumors really true?" She asked me, with those stupid Bambi eyes.

"Which ones?" I asked. There were the rumors that I'd just had an abortion…the one that said I was on crack…or the one that I was a prostitute outside of school.

"That you and Fang are partners for Mr. Dawson's project?" She clarified for me.

I nodded, not understanding why it should be such a big deal. I was also wondering how this had been spread to Nudge so fast. I mean I could understand the high school 'royalty' finding out such things so quickly, but it was way beyond me how it got to someone like Nudge this quick.

"They're saying that he put you two together because he's tired of all the tension between you two in his classroom and he just wants you to get together already," she explained.

I almost choked on my gum when she told me that Fang caught my eye. He immediately noticed me as well and made eye contact. But he didn't do anything about it and just looked back at his friends, thank God. I couldn't afford any winks or crap like that from Nudge.

"I don't think that's ever going to happen," I assured her.

"He's a jerk," she reminded. "I will kick your ass if you ever say anything nice about that player. But it will be for your own good."

"Please do," I begged, doubting that it would ever get to that point. I hoped it never would.

Home was a different story than usual. I wasn't greeted with a mad dad at home demanding his dinner and a beer from his 'exhausting day at work'. He was gone, with a note left on the counter about a 'business trip'. He was just going to go fuck another whore yet again. At least it meant that I wasn't going to have to deal with him tonight and maybe get some actual homework done for once.

I pulled out my laptop that I kept hidden in the bottom of my laundry basket. Dad had no idea that I had it, I'd gotten it from the Best Buy that my mom had worked at before she died last work. It was sort of a condolence gift. I didn't keep it hidden because I absolutely knew for sure that my dad would destroy it, but because I didn't know. The whole point was to play on the safe side.

My email was filled with Nudge's annoying chain emails, my aunt's new art projects and one from…

Fang?

How the hell had he gotten my email address.

Without thinking about it, I clicked to open it.

_This grade's really important for me to pass the class, kay? So let's just try to make this work._

_-Fang_

I sighed. If his grade was so important to him, why didn't he do good on everything else so that he didn't have to depend on this single grade for his overall semester grade? Because males are stupid, that's why. They don't plan ahead, don't care, don't listen and most of all you don't trust them.

I closed my laptop shut and put it back in its place.

Maybe this was the chance to get over my fears.

Dad wasn't home that morning either. Thank God, I would be able to go to school without my usual lecture on my behavior and attitude. Looking at the cut on my head, I realized that I was going to have to wear the hat yet again today. At the rate that it was healing, I was going to have to wear it for at least a week. No doubt Nudge would start questioning it. Maybe if I asked to borrow some of her many hats, she would be distracted by her fashion advice too much to ask questions on _why _I needed the hats.

Surprisingly, I wasn't late for the bus today. Ron looked as shocked as I felt. Even more of a surprise; none of Fang's group were whistling, winking or licking their lips at me today. They did stare, however, making me really uncomfortable and awkward. Why the change of atmosphere so sudden?

I sat down in my normal seat, looking at the group suspiciously.

After two stops and five more kids, Fang made his way to my seat and sat down beside me just like he'd done the day before. I sank down even farther than I had been, as if I could hide from Fang by playing the 'if I can't see you, the you can't see me' game with him.

"What do you want?" I asked about three blocks away from the school.

"Is sitting next to you so wrong?" He asked, trying to act innocent. But he couldn't fool me, he wanted something more than to just sit by me. Maybe that's why his friends had been so calm with me today. Calm before the storm, right?

"Yes," I answered sharply.

"I was wondering when we could work on the project. You did get my email, right?" He implied.

I answered with no response, just staring straight ahead.

"Yeah, that's what I thought," he muttered, still sitting in seat with me. Our arms were pressed against each other. Every time I attempted to move my arm away he just pressed his against it that much harder

Silence lasted until we pulled up to the school.

"Okay, next Monday after school it is," he stated, not giving me much of a choice.

He was up and out of the bus before I could say anything against it.

So…next Monday, I was going to Fang's house.

**Watcha think? It's going to be interesting to see what happens with Fang and Max. I don't even know what's going to happen yet. Any suggestions? **


	3. Chapter 3

Thanks to everyone who reviewed yesterday, you made my day when I checked my email this morning.

Max POV

He came home on Friday night…drunk and ready for a beating.

He drank because he couldn't deal with the fact that his wife was dead. Any pain that he felt, he made sure was inflicted on me because he couldn't deal with me being happy. He never used to be this way. Just like I used to be all outgoing and never quiet and reserved like I am now. Death can drastically change people, and I think my family's case was just an extreme one.

Some of this was partially my fault; I mean, I didn't get good grades, I wasn't great at sports and I didn't really have anything special about me. So who could blame my dad for being frustrated about having a daughter with no talents.

"I ask you for one thing, dinner, and you can't even do that?" He demanded, slapping me across the face.

"I fell asleep," I defended, knowing that excuses weren't going to get me out of this mess. "I'm sorry."

"You will be," he stated, hurling the plate he had set out for me to put his dinner on.

It narrowly missed my eye, but it hit the same place that the cut on my forehead was, reopening the gash. My heart rate spiked up in a split second, as fast as my father's temper had built up when he didn't see any dinner on his plate. I sucked in a breath at the impact, but ignored the pain otherwise.

He spotted a pan that I had gotten out earlier that evening before I fell asleep. We made eye contact, and I could tell what he was going to do as soon as I saw the look on his face.

"Dad, no," I pleaded. "I'll make you dinner, just don't."

"You can make it when you wake up," he told me right before I was out cold from the hit.

I woke up with a painkillers and a glass of water on the floor next to where I had been knocked out. This was his way of trying to make up for what he had done, and it worked sometimes. I chugged the water and the pills as quickly as I could manage, but it didn't stop the sudden explosion inside of my head about twenty seconds after I woke up.

Turns out that he had left again for that night.

I made it through the weekend with one slap and a kick to the shin. Pretty good as far as weekend standards go, at least my standards. Not your average American teen standards, but they were mine.

"What do you want?" I glared at Fang who had been glaring at me for the last five minutes while I laid my head down on the table.

"I want to start working on this," he stated.

"Well, didn't your mother tell you that you don't always get what you want in life?" I shot at him.

"Didn't your mom teach you some simple and basic thing called manners?" He shot back.

That shut me up this time. My mom had been very lax about most things. But manners were her thing that she decided to be strict about. 'Please' and 'thank you' were just as common in our house as breathing and saying hi. She had been very good at making sure us kids (my brother, Iggy and I) were well-brought up and well behaved.

Then she died.

I wonder, what would he say to that?

I was waiting for Fang to bug me after school on the bus. No doubt he would at least talk to me because we were going to both be getting off at the same bus station. But he hadn't been on this bus this morning, though he had been in first period. Had he driven to school for some reason? I turned another three sixty and didn't spot him. Where the hell was he?

"Why are you over here?" Fang asked behind me. How had he done that? I had just turned around to check for him.

"Why weren't you?" I pointed out.

"Because we're not going to my house, we're going to my parents' house," he answered for me.

His house?

Parents house?

Damn.

He put his arm around my shoulders and steered me towards the school parking lot. Once or twice I tried to wrench out of his grasp, but it was iron. Plus, it was entertaining to see the looks on people's faces as we passed them by.

"What are you doing?" I hissed.

"Have you ever heard of this thing called fun?" He asked.

I groaned.

"Come on," he said through his teeth. "Just play along, will you?"

I gave in to the request. Not because he asked me, but because I figured it really would be fun to play with classmates minds, right? The bastards certainly deserved it, especially that redhead Lissa who was obsessed with Fang with her entire being.

He stopped abruptly when we were about twenty feet into the cars, still eyes on us.

"What's this?" I demanded.

"This is our ride home," he clarified.

"No way in hell," I refused, looking at the same type of machine that had killed my mom in an accident.

Motorcycle.

"Oh yes," he persisted.

"Hell no," I refused yet again, when would this boy stop?

"Hell yes."

Did I have any other choice?

Shocker; he didn't have a helmet for me, or for himself. I should expect something like this from an irresponsible jerk.

We were on the highway going more than seventy miles an hour. It took all of my strength to not fall on my head behind the motorcycle. I wouldn't give Fang the satisfaction of putting my arms around him. I'm almost sure the only reasons Fang had bought a motorcycle was because he wanted to feel girl's boobs when they hung all over him and because motorcycle=bad boy, and for some reason girls like bad boys.

"You're still sure that you don't want to hang on?" He yelled over the roar of the engine.

I punched him in the shoulder to make sure that he got the message. Just at that moment was when I had to lose my balance and almost fall off of the bike. Fang's hand reached behind him and grabbed arm, making sure that I didn't. He didn't let go until I grabbed his, figures, leather jacket. I could practically feel him smirking. He hadn't completely won the battle, but he had most definitely done more than lost.

The smell of his parent's house was clean and cookies. Something that I used to walk into before my mom died. The smell was almost nauseating to me for a moment. Who wouldn't want to live with his parents when his house was like this? Only Fang would know.

"Fang?" A woman called, she must have been his mother.

"Yeah, mom, I'm here," he called back, wrenching my backpack out of my arms and tossing it onto the couch as we walked into a living room the size of my entire first floor. The entire room looked like it had come straight out of a magazine…except it had just the perfect touch of someone's personal taste in it. "I've got a friend with me."

I heard somewhat of a groan. "Hi, Lissa."

"No, mom, it's Max," Fang corrected for me wincing at the name as well.

I looked at him for an explanation.

"Lissa's my neighbor," he explained.

I raised my eyebrows. "I may not like you, but I'm so sorry," I sympathized with him, giving him a pat on the back.

"You may want to hide if you hear the doorbell," he warned. "She'll murder you if she sees you over here."

More like she'll try to ruin my social life because she's not smart or deep enough to commit murder. Too bad my social life was already shot anyways. Nonetheless, I'm sure she could figure out how to ruin it even more. Nudge, my only friend, luckily would never turn her back to me.

"Don't flatter yourself, she wants to murder me anyways," I informed him. "She's had it out for me since she and I were in the same fourth grade class together."

He raised his hands up. "I don't want to get involved in the complicated girl stuff."

It really wasn't that complicated; Lissa needed someone to hate and for some reason that person was just me. Boys just thought it was complicated because they were too lazy to go through the thought process and actually think things through like us girls did. Even girls like LIssa could do those things, and that was impressive.

Fang walked to the kitchen and I trailed after him, fearing that I might get lost if I didn't follow him.

His mom was the typical trophy wife; a little ditzy looking, but very pretty and a winning smile. Now I knew where Fang had gotten his. Her eyes told me that she was incredibly heartwarming and kind. Just like my mom had been, except the only difference was that my mom had worked to keep us going and Fang's mom probably didn't.

I couldn't help but stare at the cookies in the oven.

"Hello Max," she greeted warmly. "Maxine?"

"Maximum," Fang said with a hidden snarky tone lying underneath.

"Well, I think Max is just fine, correct hon?" She smiled at me and I nodded, mesmerized at the thought of a mother again, even if it was someone else's.

"Yes, Mo-Mrs. Rider," I smiled back.

"Would you like a cookie?" She asked me, pulling the fresh batch out of the oven. Chocolate chip? My mouth almost watered.

"I would, thank you very much."

"No problem, I'm glad to see that Fang is finally making friends with…_decent_ girls," she said, and I had a feeling that she was hinting towards Lissa being indecent. "We're glad to have you here."

This is exactly the family I was missing.

I realized that I was letting Fang's jerk face fall off too quickly (and some people so kindly pointed it out to me. So I had to re do this whole chappie. Oh well, it was worth it for you guys.

5-9 reviews= Update Thursday!

10+= tomorrow!


	4. Chapter 4

**Wow guys, you almost made me cry...17 reviews in less than 24 hours?**

Max POV

Fang and I got absolutely nothing done but the trey of cookies that came out of that oven. My tongue burned from the super hot one that I'd eaten first.

"You ate those like you've never had any before," he commented after we finished them and he had pulled me up the stairs to his room. Or should I say miniature house. Comeplete with a living space with recliners, couches and a coffee table, a kitchen with it's own three seater table and a theatre/gamestation area where I had no doubt he spent most of his time with his friends.

"Yeah," I agreed. "It's been a while."

"Don't tell me your mom doesn't make you cookies?" He asked with mock shock.

"No, she doesn't," I answered honestly. I didn't have to tell him that she was dead.

He looked a little thrown off when I told him that .

"I need to go home now," I told him. "My dad is waiting for me."

He looked slightly disappointed and I couldn't think of any reason other than the fact that he wanted to use me in his little game that he played with every girl at our school. No matter, he could go hang out with one of sluts and it wouldn't affect me at all.

"I'll take you home," he insisted.

"No," I rejected, stepping around him to get to the door. He had taken me here, he didn't need to take me home as well.

"Max-

"What?" I snapped, cutting him off.

"Just let me take you home, okay?" He persisted.

"Okay," I agreed, before there was something I would say or day to make him suspect even more.

Sensing my fear of the bike, he took his car instead.

Thank God.

"Next week we'll actually get something done," he assured me. "Next Monday, okay?"

I nodded, knowing that he would bug me until I finally agreed otherwise.

We pulled up to my house. I was surprised that he knew where I lived. But I recalled that I was always running out of my house as the bus passed by. He probably saw me running out of my house every other day or so.

"Monday," I repeated.

I knocked over an old family picture that night when trying to avoid Jeb's blow.

The smash made it deafeningly silent in between the two of us. At first I wasn't sure If he was mad about me breaking something, or if he was being snapped back into reality by the shattering of glass. The picture of our whole family, all four of us, lie on the floor, taunting us about the days when we were a happy family. Now half of it was gone, one maybe two dead.

Iggy, my ex-brother, had left the day after my mom's death. You might think that I hate my dad more, but I didn't. I hated Iggy more because Iggy had left. My dad had stayed, that had to count for something, right?

"Clean that up," Jeb muttered.

I nodded, crouching down onto my feet and picking up the picture. Iggy smiled up at me like the stupid charmer he always was. A tidal wave of anger came over me and I ripped him out of the picture, separated from the family. The choice wasn't mine, it had been his. And he had made it very clear what he chose.

Nudge looked at me suspiciously. "Don't deny that you got on that motorcycle with him."

I shrugged, not denying or confirming it.

"You got on that thing with him?" She asked me, shocked, ever though she already knew it.

"Yes, Nudge, I got on the freaking motorcycle with him," I clarified.

"You're going to get so many looks from Lissa," She warned.

I groaned at the name, just as his mother had a couple days earlier. No one really liked Lissa. But she was the principals daughter, so you didn't want to be on her bad side. Unless you really didn't care about your high school graduation.

"We have been over this three times in the last two days; I rode on it, okay?" I shook he rby her shoulders, hopefully getting the idea beat into her head.

"Okay, okay," she started being defensive

"Okay," I finally sighed, knowing that she had once and for all accepted this ridiculous thing.

"Max?" She whipered.

"Hmm?"

"Just…be careful."

'Be careful', those words kept ringing in my head as I stepped into the English classroom, Fang sitting at the same spot he and I had been sitting at for the last five days.

"Hey," he dragged out the word longer than necessary.

"Hi," I greeted shortly.

"What's going on?" He asked.

"Nothing," I responded.

He raised his eyebrows, which I could see out of the corner of my eye. "Who peed in your cheerios this morning?" He asked me.

"Gross, Fang," I snapped.

"Okay, okay," he surrendered. "We're supposed to talk about our…common interests today."

I doubted that we had any in common but eating, sleeping and drinking. Otherwise, I was fairly sure that neither of us wanted to do anything the other liked. But it was worth a try, right?

"Can we make this up?" I asked, groaning inwardly.

"No, we really can't or else he will know," he didn't seem to enthusiastic about this assignment either.

He was right, Mr. Dawson always knew. He could always tell if you were being sincere or not, no matter how good you are at faking things.

Looked like we were going to have to be honest with each other.

A woman whom I bet wasn't even five years older than me was sprawled over the couch with the smell of alcohol oozing from her breath. This was the seventh time that year that I had found a prostitute or a slut on my couch.

I sighed and climbed up the stairs to my room before my dad could find me and yell at me for coming at such an inconvenient time. He probably got laid off yet again, at least that's what this usually meant when he brought a woman to the house and got wasted. So apparently it was my fault that he had gotten fired and wasted. Sometimes my dad's logic just doesn't make any sense.

My cell phone vibrated in my pocket.

"You're numbers not in here," I answered.

"Fang," his voice on the other line was still annoyingly cocky, you could practically feel it even when you weren't in the same building as him.

"How did you-

"Nudge," he cut me off, already knowing what I was going to say. "She gave it to me after I promised I wouldn't hit on you anymore."

Yeah, like that was ever going to happen.

"Oh," I responded. "What do you want?"

"You came over to my house…don't you think it would be polite for you to invite me over to yours?" He implied.

"No," I mumbled. "Absolutely not."

"Why not?" He asked, getting on my nerves more and more by the second.

"Because you're an ass," I told him.

"Max-

"Goodbye," It was my turn to cut him off this time.

If only he knew the real reason.

**Same thing 5-9 reviews; update Friday**

**10+ Reviews= TOMORROW!**

**Thanks so much...critiquing welcomed!**


	5. Chapter 5

**I love you guys so much…15 reviews in less than two hours? Damn, you guys are good!**

Chapter Five

When sober, my dad isn't the best, but he's okay. He rarely more than slaps me if he's sober. But if he gets so much as half a beer, he turns into a FFA fighter with me as his opponent that doesn't fight back.

We had one of those matches again the night before I was supposed to go to Fang's again.

"What the fuck Max? You know you're the reason I got fired!" He slurred.

His aim may suck when he's drunk, but you know what? He didn't miss, and that's what count in the fight. He got me in the stomach the first round. Since I hadn't been paying attention while reading on the couch, he nailed me pretty hard.

See! I told you that he always blamed me for losing his jobs. You just didn't argue with my dad's reasoning or else you got sucker punched, literally. I had made the mistake of asking him how I responsible the first couple times, but I had learned very quickly.

"I'm sorry, dad," I apologized, playing along with his false accusation.

"You will be," he warned.

I had been careful to put all the knives away today, as well as the pots and pans. He usually wouldn't look for anything, just grab what was handy. Since nothing was really handy at the moment, he just used his hands. One blow to the jaw made me bite my tongue so hard that I could sense blood coming on. The bitter copper taste of blood filled my mouth as he went in for another punch. Couldn't spit it out because then I would get it on the white carpet. Spitting it out would have to wait until I could get to the sink. Might even have to swallow it if the blood flowed fast enough.

"Your mother would be ashamed of you, you know?"

Physical was only the beginning of the hell I went through all the time.

"The things you wear," he added. "She wouldn't let you wear have of it. I just let you wear it so that you'll get yourself pregnant so you'll go live with your baby's daddy," his sweaty face got really close to mine, making me hold my breath so that I wouldn't have to smell the stench of alchohol.

"Why else would she be ashamed of me?" I asked, playing along with his little game.

"You do nothing with your life," he spat his beer filled spit straight into my eye. "You're a piece of shit with no talent."

I didn't let him know it, but the things that he said to me actually hurt. But as soon as he started these games, I would just shut down any feelings that I might have. Something in my chest stabbed and made it hard to breathe. At first I thought it might be because my heart was breaking in two, but it was actually the punch to the chest my dad had made in a split second. I sucked in a sharp breath.

"Come on Max, why don't you fight back?" He taunts. "OH yeah, that's right! Because you know that you deserve this."

I grinded my teeth together. As much as I wanted to punch him back, I knew that I wouldn't stand a chance against a former Marine, no matter how drunk he was.

One last blow to the eye, boy that one was going to be a black and blue one, before I knock into the coffee table with a family picture from two years ago. It agonizingly slowly drops to the floor, making a loud crashing sound.

The glass frame shattered into millions of pieces, representing my life in a way. There was a way that the little pieces portrayed my broken heart. No matter how much you would try to fix my heart, there was no way to find all the miniscule pieces out there and put it all back together perfectly the way it was before my life fell apart. Even if somehow I did manage to find all of the pieces, there was no 'glue' in this world that would be able to make sure all the pieces were perfectly there.

It was a family picture…all four of us. James 'Iggy', Me, Mom and Dad all smiling on our vacation to California the summer before I went into high school. That summer Iggy got his drivers license and drove us all the California in his fancy Camry. He had also left me in that thing as well. Now I wouldn't even call Iggy my brother anymore. Sure, my dad beat me, and tortured me with his words, but at least he had stayed. Iggy hadn't even done something as simple as stay.

I looked up at Jeb, bracing myself for his next move.

"Clean this up," he snapped before walking away.

On the bus Monday morning, I avoided Fang's eyes as much as possible. But I couldn't avoid him when he pulled up to my bus stop with a fancy Lamborghini. The two other girls at my bus stop stared at me in jealously. If only they knew…

"What?" I demanded. "Do you want?"

"Come on, we're going to go to school," he flashed his million dollar smile at me before I could argue.

Not wanting to make a scene in front of the other two girls at the bus stop, I yanked the car door open right before the bus was turning the corner onto my block. Knowing he had won yet another battle, he smirked and stepped on the gas, going twice the speed limit for my neighborhood.

"Are you trying to prove something?" I asked.

"What would I be trying to prove?" He inquired, truly curious.

"You're trying to prove that you're better than everyone else," I pointed out. "What else would you be trying to prove?'

"That I am a nice guy?" He guessed. "I know you hate riding the bus to school."

"Oh, and how exactly do you 'know'?" I challenged.

He shrugged. "I don't know, you just sit there day after day looking like a puppy that just got kicked," he observed.

I whipped my head towards him. Did he know something? The way that he was looking absentmindedly at the road told me that he really didn't know anything. Besides, its not as if he would actually care if he did. Then again, you never know.

"Do you know anyone that could kick me and get away with?" I challenged him again.

He shook his head.

"Exactly."

"Why are you wearing sunglasses when it's cloudy out?" He inquired, poking me in the side.

I sucked in a breath from the bruise I had from last night. It hurt like a mo-fo. "Because I want to," I hissed. "Do you have a problem with that?"

He shook his head yet again.

"Didn't think so," I muttered.

We sat in silence for the rest of the school ride. Fang seemed on edge, despite my calm appearance. On the inside I was freaking out because I knew that he was getting way to close for comfort. What if he knocked on the door during one of the brawls? That would be the end of my life, for sure.

Maybe his too.

I climbed out of the car as quickly as possible and strode towards the school without so much as saying a word to Fang about anything. That is, until he grabbed my wrist, the one with angry red cuts and welts from the scissors hidden by bracelets and hair ties.

I squelched a cry of pain in my throat. But the pain must have been apparent on my face because he immediately lets go as soon as I turned around.

"Max…" he voice wasn't threatening like my dad was when he was mad, but it was threatening in a different way. A way that told me that he wanted me to tell him what was going on or else he was going to find out for himself. Knowing Fang, he would find out for himself.

"Why are you walking like you just walked from a car crash?" He looked me up and down and re-spotted the sunglasses.

He knew what I was doing. Before I could reach up to cover my face, his hand snatched out and seized my sunglasses from my eyes.

"What the hell, Max?" He almost yelled, capturing the attention of a group of stoners a couple cars down. He brought his voice down to a harsh whisper. "Who did this to you?"

"I fell," I lied with a straight face, about to turn around again.

Again he stopped me, this time grasping my shoulders and staring me straight in the face. For the longest time we just glared and gaped at each other in shock. He was in shock that someone could beat up me, Max the Unbreakable. I was in shock that he actually cared the tiniest bit. As I looked deeper into his eye, I knew that he knew something was terribly wrong. He just wasn't sure exactly of what.

"You…didn't fall," he affirmed.

I tried to wrench my shoulders away from his grasp, but I wasn't determined enough. On his part, he was too determined to keep me where I was standing. So for that moment, I stayed there and looked him in the eye, about to tell a more convincing lie.

"Fine," I pretended to give in. "I got in a fight."

Technically, I wasn't lying.

He shook me, giving my already bad headache an extra boost in pain. "Who?"

I moved my face closer to where we were almost nose to nose. He stood his ground, letting me know that he wasn't afraid of me. I also did that same.

"None of your business," I hissed.

This time I was determined enough to haul myself out of his hold. This time he also let me go, stepping back as I walked away.

"Max," he called after me.

Unfortunately I didn't hear him because I was already too far away.

Away from the threat endangering my life.

**I know, I know, I should have let Max warm up before Fang did, but my mind wouldn't let me make that story. I just couldn't resist! I needed some more than just hate tension, I needed some pure emotional tension between the two.**

**Tell me, what would I do better with the two? Should I move slower? **


	6. Chapter 6

Just a warning, this chapter is introducing Nudge's dilemmas in her life. I felt like Nudge needed to be accounted for as well as Iggy in this chapter. Hope you enjoy.

Nudge's POV

My foster mom was going to kill me. She had made it very clear over the last three years that if I ever got pregnant, I was out of her house. It couldn't get worse, right?

Oh no, it just went downhill from there; the system would have a very difficult time finding another home for me and in this state of Nevada, they weren't legally responsible for me after the age of sixteen, the age I would have the baby if I was actually pregnant. Then, since I was homeless and didn't know who the father was, the state wouldn't almost definitely take the baby away from me.

For now though, I needed to actually find out if I was pregnant or not.

I bent down at the crappy seven eleven on my block. Looking at the different pregnancy tests, I wondered which one was the most accurate one.

"First response is probably the best bet," a male voice behind me suggested.

My breath caught in my throat. That voice...so familiar and triggering. One side of me didn't want to turn around to face whoever it was. On the other hand, what did I care? I'd I was truly pregnant, I was going to have to face people at school anyways. So might as well start practicing now, right?

I spun around on my feet, twisting into a standing position.

"Oh god, nudge?" he asked, sounding stunned.

My eyes narrowed as soon as I saw the guy. Not only did he sound familiar, he also looked familiar as well. He whipped around before I could get a close enough look at his face.

I stepped in front of him before he managed to step out of the store. He tried to cover his face, but it was to late. His cover had now been blown from me.

"Iggy?" I stared at him. Gaped is probably a better word.

"hey," he greeted back warily.

"What are you doing back in town?" I asked, probably a little harsher than I had intended, but in my defense, he had scared the crap out of me. "You're just…

"Here?" He asked.

I nodded. "Yeah, what happened to you?"

He sighed. "Let's just say that I did it for the better of Max."

I almost snorted at his excuse. If he only knew about what Max was really going through, he would kill Jeb. No matter how much Max though she could lie to me, I knew that her dad at least hit her. Why else would Max wear make-up? She wouldn't want me to tell anyone if she knew that I knew. Why? Because she would hate to be thrown in the foster system where she would be taken away from everything she already knows. Trust me, she's lost enough in the last couple years. To be honest, I was being selfish too. I didn't want her to leave me; she was the best thing that I had here.

I sighed as well, copying him. "You know, Max isn't going to be very psyched to see you around here."

He put his hand on his head. "Yeah…which is why you're not going to tell her."

"She's my best friend, why wouldn't I?" I challenged.

"Because I know something about you now that I'm pretty sure you haven't told her yet," he gestured his head towards the pregnancy test.

"You would really do that?" I asked, shocked. Iggy had never been one to blackmail.

He shrugged. "Drastic times call for drastic measures, right?" He answered vaguely.

I wanted to bang my head against a wall. But figuring that I might have a baby inside of me, that probably wasn't the best idea that has ever crossed my mind.

He grabbed the pregnancy test that I had been holding from my hands.  
"What are you doing?" I gasped as he walked towards the register.

"Do you want to know if you have a baby or not?"He called back, making a few people look over at us.

Better play along before the whole town knew.

Max POV

There was an odd feeling that I had . A sense of familiarity and alien at the same time. Like someone was in town that I knew, but I just had no idea who it really was. Ignoring the feeling, I decided to move on with my afternoon.

Fang and I had spent all of first period leaning as far away from each other as our chairs would let us without falling out.

The alien feeling might be Nudge's absence. She had needed to take a day off of school and she finally had. Her morning sickness and bipolar like moods had been getting on my nerves lately. I swear to God her case sounded like a pregnancy.

My eyes widened a couple minutes before the last class of the day ended. I shook my head.

No way in hell.

Max POV;

Fang's house was just as nice as his room was, but bigger. It was a mini version of his parent's house.

"Damn," I muttered as soon as I stepped into the condo.

"You want a beer?" He asked me.

I shook my head, after seeing what my dad turned into when he's drunk, I never wanted to get wasted. So I wasn't even going to take the chance by drinking. Just to dangerous.

"Rootbeer, Max, rootbeer," he corrected himself.

I scrunched up my nose. I hated that stuff, nasty.

"Okay, Italian soda it is," he looked at me for approval.

He didn't need any from me. Who in this world doesn't like Italian soda? No one that I knew.

I sit down on the overly comfortable leather couch that faced a 96 inch flat screen.

"It's 3-D," he added, noticing my awe.

Was that even possible to have a 3-D T.V?

"Want to watch something?" He asked, opening a case of hundreds of movies. Then he grinned. "Avatar?"

Believe it or not, I had actually never seen that movie. Somehow between my mom dying, brother disappearing off the face of the earth and my dad abusing me I just haven't found the time to see it…especially in 3-D.

"Sure," I agreed somewhat reluctantly. "Why not?"

I was out sometime after the mother tree speech by the main guy. There was not a lot of watching, but more dozing off. Once and a while a gun shot would wake me up, but I would just go back to sleep like before.

The first time I wake with Fang not in the arm chair and the T.V turned off was when I really woke up for the first time. Someone, probably Fang, had put a blanket over me and turned off the lights.

Sleep took over me before I could think through the consequences of spending the night at Fang's house.

What was my dad going to do?

Don't worry, this is still mainly about Fang and Max, but if it's just about those two all the time, you're going to get bored and so will I. So I decided to make this sotry was goign to be a little bit more dramatic =).

Thank you so much for reading! I love you. I'll love you even more if you review/critique!


	7. Chapter 7

Nudge POV

Iggy didn't take me to my house like I thought he would in the first place. Instead, he kept driving.

"Hey, Iggy?" I asked from the passenger's seat.

"Yeah?" He responded

"Where are we going exactly?"

"You don't want to take that at your house, do you?" He pointed out a very good point.

"Definitely not," I agreed.

"Then we're going to my house," he informed.

I was speechless as he pressed on the gas even more.

If there was one place worse for taking a pregnancy test than my foster house, it was at my best friends brother's house.

Nudge POV

Two water bottles, a coke, a bottle of iced tea and a Sprite in the last hour still couldn't make me go to the bathroom. God, I have never felt so much pressure in my life. Never had I ever thought that my biggest pressure in my life would be to pee on a stick.

"Do you need help?" Iggy called from the other side of the bathroom door.

"Eww, Iggy," I screamed. "You're nasty!"

"I was going to give you another bottle of water," he defended himself. "I don't know what you were thinking of."

"Oh," I stuttered, embarrassed that I had said it out loud when he was just trying to be a decent guy. "No, I think if I drink any more, my bladder might explode."

I heard a slight laugh on the other side of the door. "Okay, well I don't want to have to go to my neighbors to go to the bathroom. So are you going to finish within the next twelve hours?"

I looked at my watch. 1:15. I had been in this bathroom for over an hour. There would be no point to going to school after I was done. Skipping school wasn't something that I did, but I was about to die without knowing for sure.

"I don't know," I admitted, then I felt something. "Oh my gosh!"

"What?" He exclaimed on the other size. "is it coiming out?"

I groaned. "No, false alarm."

Something hit the door. I wasn't exactly sure if it was his fist or his head.

Are you okay?" He asked me after the loud thump. "You sure you still don't want that bottle of water?"

Then it finally came. I peed on the stick. Then I screamed in excitement and…fear at the same time.

"Finally?" Iggy asked hopefully.

"Yes, finally," I called back gleefully.

Yeah, I had just completed the first step of a pregnancy test, that was just great! Right? I shook my head at myself. What the heck was I thinking? Why was I happy about completing a pregnancy test?

I got done and zipped up my pants, holding the stick in my two hands like it was a sacred item.

"Can I come in now?" Iggy knocked on the door again for the fifth time in the last hour.

"Um…why?" I asked, not meaning to sound harsh, but truly curious why he would want to be in the bathroom during the most humiliating and awkward moment of my life.

"Because you should have Max with you during this, but since you refuse to, I'm the closest thing you're going to get," was his reasoning.

He was going to know one way or another, so why not?

"Come on in," I surprised.

For some reason, I hadn't locked the bathroom door. Iggy could have walked in any time he wanted to and wouldn't have been stopped. Yet he didn't. At least he had that much decency.

He distracted me with the word game where you say one word and the other person says the first word that comes to their mind. Something that Iggy, Max and I would do in the car ride to school in eighth grade.

"What does two bars mean?" He asked, picking up the stick and scrutinizing it.

I didn't need to answer him verbally, because everything was on my face.

"Nudge…" he started to assure me, but he couldn't think of the right words.

"What am I going to do?" I wondered out loud.

"You mean, what are we going to do?" He corrected me.

I looked up at him with tears in my eyes, his eyes filled with the familiar concern and sympathy. Without another word, he wrapped my into his embrace and pressed my face against his chest.

"We're going to figure this out," he promised.

Max POV

When was the next time I woke up for good?

The next morning…on Fang's couch…on a school night.

My dad was going to kill me.

"Took you long enough," someone muttered from another open room.

"What the hell, Fang?" I yelled. "Why didn't you wake me up, you idiot?"

"I tried," he defended. "But you were dead to the world."

"Oh," I said.

"Why, are your parents that bad?" He asked.

"You could say that," I agreed. "Let's just go to school."

"We're at lunch right now," he informed me, pointing at the clock above the T.V.

My eyes widened. "You…you mean to say that I not only stayed the night at your house but I also slept through half of the day?"

He nodded, looking at me as if I was going to have a heart attack or nervous breakdown of some kind.

I groaned, holding my head in my hands. I hada headache since I hadn't taken one of the painkillers dad kept in the cabinets. Yet another mistakes of mine. Every place that he had hit me in the last two weeks was now magnified pain by times a hundred. I squeezed my eyes shut, making sure that Fang couldn't see my face when he walked around the couch. To kneel down by where I was sitting.

"I saw something," he told me, "while you were sleeping."

I sighed. "What? What did you see Fang?"

"Your huge bracelet that's on your wrist every day, well it sort of slipped up your arm while you were sleeping," he let me know.

My heart stopped, and I felt my body drop to the depths that gravity took me to. You know that feeling when your parents find out that you were sneaking out at night. You can feel rocks filling up your stomach and slowing down your circulation.

"What's about it?" I snapped.

His hand snatched out to grasp my cut one. NO matter how much I tried to yank back, he would let me go. He wasn't rough like my dad, just rock solid and still. When I finally stopped fighting back, he turned my hand over to reveal my wrist. Angry red scars and fresh new cuts criss-crossed each other.

"Max," he whispered to me gentle, but firm.

I could feel those eyes staring at me, but I refused to look into those deep dark brown eyes. Those eyes could look into my soul if I let him make eye contact with me.

"Look at me, Max," he almost pleaded with me.

I still refused until his free hand lifted up my chin so that I was looking at him. It was too late to look away from him because he had already hypnotized me. For the longest time, we just sat there, looking into one another's eyes. It was almost as if we could stop it, whatever trance we were in. maybe it was the same for Fang was it was for me, because it sure looked like it.

"Why?" He asked.

He could be asking many things.

Why did I hurt myself?

Why would anyone do this?

Why was I hurting so much that I would do this?

Why was I such a freak?

It could have been one of any of those, but it all came down to the same thing.

"It doesn't concern you," I snapped, attempting one more time to haul my hand back one more time.

He didn't let go. He held on for dear life, squeezing me so much that it almost hurt. It looked like him finding out about this was his lifeline. Well too bad, because no matter what he said, how nice he was to me or how 'charming' he was, there was no way in hell I was telling him the truth. First because I genuinely didn't want anyone to know. Second ; it was _Fang_. Third; I couldn't afford to lose the only family that I had left.

"It does," he stated. It wasn't a question if he was involved now or not, but a fact. To him, at least.

"That's nice," I retorted. "Now could you please let me go?"

"Not until you tell me why you're doing this to yourself," he bargained.

I fought back tears in my eyes that had been held back for the last year. Not a single tear had left my eyes since the day of my mom's death. Even at her funeral, I was a heartless bitch.

"Why do you care so much, Fang?" I challenged him.

He broke our eye contact and looked up, as if the answer would be on the ceiling of his condo. I set my lips into a firm line.

"I don't know," he finally admitted. "I look at you and I care, okay?"

I shook my head. "That's not going to be a good enough answer."

"What is 'good enough' for you Max?" He challenged me now. "Because I'm starting to think that you just don't care, period."

"I don't," I muttered.

His free hand rolled up into a fist and started coming up. I flinched, thinking the fist was meant for me. But he brought it up to his face and ran his hand through his hair in frustration with me and himself.

"Max," he sighed. "What do I have to do to prove to you that I really do care?"

"You can't," I confessed, leaning closer to him so that we were almost as close as yesterday, face to face. "Nothing that you do is ever going to get me to trust you, okay?"

He shook his head in defiance. "You know what Max? I'm going to prove you wrong."

He stood up and finally let my hand go.

I really wished him good luck in his quest.

Actually, I wanted him to prove me wrong.

**It's getting closer guys. **

**Just a spoiler, it's going to get really sad for Max in the next couple chapters. Be prepared.**

**Don't worry, Fax is going to happen soon!**


	8. Chapter 8

Max POV

Wednesday came, the first time since last Friday that I had actually seen her. She had been gone Friday because of an illness and I hadn't gone to school at all on Tuesday since it was somewhat pointless.

"YOU WHAT?" Nudge shouted, making the entire hallway full of people turn around and stare at the two of us.

"Shh," I hissed.

"You spent the night at his house?" She whispered.

"Yes," I confirmed. "I just fell asleep on the couch, relax."

"Yeah, next time you'll 'accidentally' fall asleep on his bed," she remarked. "Seriously, what were you thinking?"

"I wasn't," I admitted sheepishly. "I was just so tired."

She gave me a sympathetic. "What did your dad do?"

"Nothing," I lied. The worst part? She believed me.

"That's good," she said.

"Yeah," I agreed falsely with her.

_"Where the fuck were you last night?" My dad screamed as soon as Fang had finally dropped me off at my house._

_I didn't answer him. I was just going to play along and take the hits like usual. Speaking made him even more mad, I had learned that quickly._

_He backhanded me, making me almost lose my balance and making my cheek go on fire. Before I regained my footing, he punched me in the side of the jaw, making me stumble backwards into a dresser behind the couch. The contents of the table fell to the floor, along with me and the table itself. As if the table didn't do enough to beat me up by landing on top of me, he took the vase that had survived the fall to the carpet and smashed it on my shins. _

_The splinters stuck into my skin, cutting into my veins, muscle. One even managed to rub itself against my bone. The table was upside down on top of my stomach, forcing me to take short breaths through my chest because I couldn't lift it, seeing as my hands were also stuck underneath the table. _

_"You going to tell me where you were last night?" He challenged again._

_I shook my head. If I told him about Fang, he would kill Fang, even though he brough prostitutes here often. Rules for me were way different than the rules for as well only be me getting hurt, right? Fang may be an ass at time, but at least he wasn't a complete jerk like my dad._

_"Fine by me, but if you do tell me, I will lift off the table for me," he bargained._

_I shook my head once again. _

_"Okay, get the table off of yourself," he told me. "Goodnight."_

_My eyes widened with fear. What if I couldn't get out of this this time? What the hell was I going to do? I could feel my consciousness vanishing slowly by the second. _

_Maybe this would finally be it?_

_I almost wished it was._

Fang and I didn't speak a word to each other on Wednesday. He just stared at me, trying to figure me out. For some reason, he just couldn't.

I wasn't focused on Fang at all though. It was on something else much bigger.

You remember my brother that completely disappeared?

Yeah, he's back.

_Wednesday morning, someone opened the front door without knocking. At first, I thought that it was my dad. It was, but a younger version of him. The blue eyes instead of brown told me that it really wasn't my dad._

_"Max?"_

_"Iggy?" I forced out._

_He had woken me up from a night under that table. Fortunately and unfortunately, last night hadn't been the end for me. Instead, I get woken up by my brother that's practically dead to me._

_"What the fuck happened to you?" He demanded you, lifting the table off of me and trying to get the shattered glass out from my flesh and muscle._

_"I fell into the table," I lied, taking a deep breath. _

_It looked like a reasonable enough explanation. I had actually run into the table. The table had falled on top of me without the help of my father. As far as Iggy knew, the vase could have just fallen on me, not been smashed by our dad. _

_"Are you sure?" He sounded not convinced, but almost._

_"Yes, I'm sure," I snapped. "What the hell are you doing here?"_

_"I wanted to give you a ride to school," he told me. "Where's dad?"_

_There was a hint of suspicion in his voice. He couldn't know about dad. As much as I really didn't like Iggy in the last year, he didn't deserve to learn about my dad's issues. In fact, he didn't need to worry about us at all, now did he? _

_"He's out of town," I lied. "That's why no one got it off of me." _

_"Oh," he said, realization hitting him. Ha! He actually believed me?_

_"Why did you want to give me a ride to school?" I asked, truly curious for the answer. _

_"So we could talk," he offered. _

_I gave him a look of disgust. "There's nothing to talk about," I screamed at him, slapping him in the face. "You left."_

_"Yeah, but I-_

_"You left and that is the end of the story," I cut him off. "Thanks for getting this thing off, but you should leave now."_

_He opened his mouth to protest. _

_"Leave," I demanded. _

_He backed up, but didn't back all the way down._

_"Max, you-_

_"I said leave!" I almost screamed._

_He put his hands up in a surrender gesture and made his way out of the house, not even bothering to look back. Just like the way he left in the first place._

_I slammed the door behind him, and leaned against the front door. As I rested my head up against the door, I breathed in and out, thankful that I was finally able to breathe at full capacity._

_For the second time in three days, I was almost in tears._

Nudge POV.

Max was acting weird.

Fang was acting weird.

I was acting weird.

Iggy acted even weirder.

What was going on?

I ran into Iggy on the walk home from the bus stop.

"Hey," I said, hesitantly. It may not be awkward for him, but it was for me because he was the only one that knew about my…baby. Not to mention…why would he stick around for a girl that was pregnant with a baby that wasn't even his?

"How's Max?" He asked.

I thought back to today at school. She was more snappy and moody than usual. Something had most definitely happened to her since Monday. She was walking uncomfortably and she even seemed light headed.

"She's…I don't know," I admitted. "Why?"

"Because I stopped by the house and she was…stuck under that really heavy dresser table thing behind our couch?" He tried to explain it. "She said she fell, which I believe that part."

"So what's wrong with that?" I asked. There was no way Max fell without some help from her dad. "Was there anything else that was weird?"

"Our mom's favorite vase was smashed all over her shins," he winced, trying to imagine what that would feel like.

"Iggy…" I stopped myself. Should I be more worried about my friend's trust in me or her well-being? Of course I needed to be worried more about ther well-being. Worrying about her trust in me when things were getting this bad was just plain selfish.

He looked at me, he eyes boring into mine. "Nudge…do you know something?"

He wasn't accusing exactly, but he was questioning me.

I swallowed, hard. "You mean the table was…

"On top of her…all night long. She said that Jeb was out of town, and I believed her, but then I just realized that his shoes were still by the door.

My eyes widened. "Jeb-

"Why the hell would Jeb do something like that? Why would he let her be like that for a whole night?" He wondered out loud.

"Have you thought about if maybe he was the one to get her into that situation?" I challenged.

He shook his head. "Oh…god, do you mean?"

I nodded. "Max never told me directly, but I always ahad my suspicions about Jeb…" I confessed, knowing that he sacred bond between Max and I had just been broken. Was that bond really worth Max being beaten by her own father every night? "I just never knew that things were this bad."

He shrunk back, not believing that his family could have turned into a place of hell.

"Oh, shit," he muttered. "I should have seen the signs. Why am I so stupid?"

"You're not stipid, Fang" I assured. "You just don't want to believe that your dad beats your sister…that's completely normal."

"No, this wouldn't have happened if I didn't leave," he blamed himself.

Maybe not, but who could say in this world?

"But it's not your fault," I tried to drill that fac into him before he started self destructing himself mentally. "It's your dad's fault."

He turned around, walking away a little bit and then turning on his heels to walk back my way. "I've got to get her out, no matter what."

"I don't think Max exactly favors you right now," I let him down, trying to be gentle.

"Oh, I know," he assured. "But it needs to get done nonetheless, no matter what."

"How exactly do you plan to do that?" I challenged, trying to get him to think reasonably.

"We're going to use a little thing I like to call…Fang."

**It's going to get intense between Iggy and Max the next couple of chapters. After the intensity, it's going to get intense between Fang and Max. Don't worry, their moment is going to come soon enough. **


	9. Chapter 9

**Just to clear up some confusion of 'mixing up' Iggy and Fang on the last chapter, I actually didn't. Iggy was saying that he was going to use Fang as a way to get Max out of her situation, because he knows that Max will not easily forgive him. By the time she does, it might be to late for everyone. Fang has a better chance getting Max out quicker than Iggy does.**

Max POV

Yeah, I rode the bus home on Wednesday. No way in hell was I ever going to get in a car with Fang ever again. If I got in, there was no telling what he would do or where he would take me to make sure that I told him why I had been cutting. He had gotten the message and didn't bother me any more. He didn't even ride the bus the rest of the week.

Nudge was acting even more happier than normal. What the heck had happened to her? I was jealous, but of course that didn't mean that I didn't want her to be unhappy. I wasn't jealous when she was having spouts of depression and uncontrollable crying. My pregnancy thought the other day in class was making more and more sense by the day. But every time I thought the thought, I would shake it out of my head because there was no way Nudge would be that stupid.

For the rest of the week, I made sure not to be caught alone with anyone, looking behind my back every time I heard a sound. Iggy being back was making me get on edge for some reason. Not that I didn't trust him, but there was a talk that I wanted to avoid at all costs. And he got the chance, he would lock us both in a room until we had it out. That's what our parents did with us when we were little, and he had also adopted their practice whenever I got mad at him when he began high school and I was in middle school.

"You're sure there's nothing wrong?"

I jumped.

"Oh, it's just you," I muttered when I spotted Nudge in the corner of my eye.

"Gee, thanks," she said, not sure whether that was supposed to be nice or an insult. I wasn't going to tell her that I was just relieved not to see Fang or Iggy. So I just shut my mouth, like I was perfect at all the time. "Don't you want some more food?" She asked, looking at my lame lunch of a turkey sandwich and a water bottle.

I shook my head, looking at her food pile of chocolate chip cookies, a hoagie, apple, chips, soda and a string cheese. She's always eaten a lot and been skinny, but now she was starting to get a little food baby.

God, there was that word again.

But, it really wasn't that noticeable. What was noticeable was how much her boobs have grown in the past couple months. Not that I'm like…that. But when your best friend jumps from a B to a C in less than a half a year, you are bound to notice. The guys had been noticing too.

"I'm going on a diet," I told her sarcastically.

Honestly, I never ate a large lunch, just in case my dad hit me hard enough to the point of wanting to puke. That way I didn't have hardly anything in my stomach.

She giggled at my comment, knowing that I would never do something so stupid as to go on a diet. Nudge just thought that I was mocking the anorexic girls that wandered the school hallways at lunch, looking for something to do other than eat lunch.

"Nudge, can I tell you something?" I asked her.

"Psh, of course," she granted.

"Nudge, you are eating like a pregnant woman," I joked.

Her face didn't look like it was a joke, though.

Nudge POV

"Nudge, you are eating like a pregnant woman," Max teased me.

Was she really teasing? I wandered. Did she know something? No, she couldn't….unless Iggy had told her. But Iggy wouldn't have told her without asking me first, right? Well, you never knew. I gaped at Max.

"What?" I asked with my mouth full of a chocolate chip cookie.

"You're eating like a pregnant woman,' she repeated, being less teasing this time.

"Oh," I faked a laugh. Hard to do with dry cookie crumbs in your throat. "I know! I'm just thinking about getting trying out for track, so I'm attempting to put on some more weight for muscle."

Now, how good of a lie was that?

Horrible, I know.

"Yeah, you just want an excuse to eat more," Max smiled at me, telling me that she hadn't bought the lie, but she didn't actually think I was pregnant or anything.

Man, that was a close one.

Max POV

Iggy approached me after yet again the Tuesday of the next week. This time he was in his car, a outdoor jeep. Red. Had to admit, pretty sweet jeep.

"Come on, you should at least talk to me," he pleaded with me.

He was just trying to be a good brother and make amends. But what can I say, I hardly forgive, and I never, ever forget **(a/n; you recognize that from the first book?)**

I rolled my eyes at his persistence.

I refused to even answer his comment with a witty comeback. That would give him the satisfaction of me actually talking to him.

"Um Max, about last week…I cam back after you left and dad was home," he told me. "For some reason, I doubt that he just came back in the middle of the day."

I stopped dead cold. The stupid red jeep did as well. I yanked the door open and sat down on the seat next to him.

"What do you want?" I demanded.

"The best for my sister," he responded.

"Not a good enough answer," I snapped. "You want to waltz back into our lives and act as if nothing ever happened. Like you never left, like you didn't leave me and dad and break us even more. Like-

"Mom never died," he finished for you. "Like our so called dad never started beating you up when I left?"

"What makes you think that?" Every bit of snarky and tough had left my voice as soon as he mentioned my dad.

"Come on, Max, what the hell did you think that looked like?" He challenged. "You really expected the story that you just 'fell'? Maximum does not fall."

"How would you know that?" I challenged him back. "You haven't been back for almost a year."

"That's right, that's why I have to do everything I can to make that up _now," _he explained.

"If you're feeling guilty about leaving us, then don't, we're doing just fine," I lied. Dad had lost his job again, my grades were failing, the pantry was practically empty, the bills were way behind.

"Oh really? Then why is the food almost extinct in our house?" He threw back. "And I checked with your teachers, your grades aren't looking too great."

"Right, because you were the perfect son and I was just one that lived in your shadow," I reminded him.

"You had no right to do that," I brought my fist up to punch him. He caught it with both hands and held onto it. "You're not-

"Dad?" He questioned. "You're right, I'm not. But dad doesn't give a shit about us any more. If he did, he would be on your ass about those grades, Those utility bills would be paid, there would be food in the kitchen. Which is exactly why I have to take over the job."

"No, Iggy," I objected, "you really don't. You're two years older than me. Stop always taking responsibility for me and live your own life."

"If I don't, then who is?" He confronted. "Jeb sure as hell isn't."

I opened my mouth to come up with some really wise answer. But all I could say is, "If you tell _anyone _about Jeb, you can sure as hell count on me never forgiving you."

And I was out, trying to still look like a boss.

**I love you guys...but CRITIQUE please! If you love my writing, you can make it even better by the things that I could work on. And of course I will still welcome compliments =). **


	10. Chapter 10

Max POV

Luckily I didn't have any more encounters with my brother for the next couple of weeks. Fang was the same way, not talking, not bugging, just looking and judging.

And I had really thought that he was different.

Guess my judgment had been right from the start.

Nudge's food baby grew even more as her appetite did by the day.

Baby…that word was always lingering.

I shuddered at that word.

Or maybe I was shuddering because my oh-so great dad was home from another (probably failed) job interview.

"Max, get your ass down here!" He screamed at me.

I knew better than to keep him wait, so I was down in an instant.

Nudge POV

How was Max not noticing all the signs of me being pregnant? I mean, come on, even I'm not that oblivious. Maybe she was in denial like I had been in at first. My foster mom was starting to look at me suspiciously. She would probably wait until I was showing dramatically before she kicked me out. She wasn't that mean. Who could blame her for not wanting a pregnant girl to take care of when she couldn't get pregnant herself?

"So, you're saying that she's going to kick you out any week now?" Iggy clarified, across from the Subway table from me.

"That's exactly what I'm saying," I confirmed. "I mean, the system isn't responsible for me anymore in a couple of months, which is when she will be kicking me out probably."

"Easy, you live with me," he suggested, actually giving the thought some serious consideration.

"Yeah…Max would love that," I muttered with my mouth full of chips.

He gave me yet another look…'how the hell can you eat that much?' That kind of look.

"Max will just have to deal with it," he waved it off with a hand. But it really wasn't just that simple. In a guy's mind, it might be, but they don't exactly think things through.

Like…how was he going to have a pregnant girl living in his apartment with social services paying a visit? Or, if he intended to help me through everything, like he said he was going to, how was he going to pay for everything; food, medical, baby stuff, etc.?

"I think you're great for keeping my secret and all, but I think you're taking things a bit too far as far as sympathy goes," I told him. "You're just out of high school, don't you want to live your life?"

"I left," was his response. It made no sense, and yet it made perfect sense at the same time.

"You think this is your fault?" I asked.

"That baby wasn't your choice, was it?" He asked.

"Of course it wasn't, it just kind of happened and I didn't want to kill an innocent life," I agreed.

"No, I mean the making of it wasn't your choice," he stated.

We both knew it was truth. Iggy stared at me intently for the longest time, until he finally let up and took a sip of his Coke.

"Yeah, so what?" I challenged. "It's a life nonetheless."

"So, since this life happened because I left, I'm going to help make sure that it stays safe," he assured.

"You really think that this baby is because you left?" I asked again.

"Nudge, think about it' you wouldn't have been in that same place at that exact time if I hadn't left. It was probably at some party, wasn't it?" He guessed.

I nodded, telling him that he was right.

"If I were here, you know that I would have done something to get you to not go to that party," he reasoned.

Though his reasoning was completely wack, he was right. But it wasn't his fault, it was the rapist's fault, whoever he was.

"It doesn't matter," he said. "What I mean is that I want to help with this baby no matter what."

I sighed.

Looked like I wasn't going to be able to convince him otherwise. Whether this was part of his 'doing good deeds to make up for leaving' plot, I didn't care.

I needed this.

Max POV

He was mad. Boy was he mad. He was purple mad. I have seen him red mad, but never purple mad. His face was so flushed from being angry that it was deep scarlet. This time was worse than I had ever seen him before, I had seen him _furious. Livid .Enraged. _There were no words to describe his anger this time around.

"Who is Fang?" He asked.

I froze while coming down the stairs. What was he going to do to Fang when he found out that he was the one that I spent the night at? I shuddered at the thought of what he was capable of.

"He's a boy that I go to school with," I answered warily, cautiously. "Why?"

"Do you want to tell me why you spent the night at his house the other week?" He demanded.

I finished my descent down the rest of the staircase and faced my father. "I fell asleep when I was ov-

My lungs ran out of air before I got the chance to finish the sentence. Why? Because Jeb had knocked the air out of them with a swift blow just below the ribcage.

"You slut," he insulted me, shoving me back down to the stairs.

Narrowly avoiding another hit, I scrambled up the stairs, trying to avoid more to come. Maybe it was finally time that I needed to tell someone. Or at least get out of the house somehow. I was sick and tired of having to put on a poker face every day at school and pass off my pain as anger or irritation. Then I thought about the consequences; of course I would be taken away from him if social services got a hold of the case. Where would I go, exactly? Maybe out of town, because they might not have any open foster homes for a teenager. Iggy was probably too young at nineteen to be considered held responsible for me. What would I do without Nudge, though? She was the only person left in this world that I genuinely loved. There was no way I would be able to survive without her.

Thinking it through, telling someone just wasn't a good idea.

Now, getting out of the house, that might be okay.

"Wait until I find this boy," he taunted me.

I really shouldn't care about Fang or what happened to him. For some reason, I felt something tugging at my heart, telling me nothing could happen to Fang or it would be broken.

I almost reached the top of the stairs before he grabbed my ankle, yanking me back down to the ground. He was determined to give me a really good beating this time. As he climbed up the remainder of the stairs, I noticed that there was an object he was holding behind him.

A steak knife.

Those suckers could do some damage. I've seen my dad cut through a one inch think steak in just one slice with one of our knives. What exactly was he planning to do with that steak knife now?

I wasn't going to stick around to find out.

Unlike my usually character where I just stick the beating out, I bolted up the stairs again. But he caught my ankle yet again, dragging me back to him.

"What are you-

"Shut the fuck up!" He screamed at me.

That did shut me up for good. He shoved me hard against the wall and gave me a blow to the nose, making blood flow immediately. He kneed me repeatedly in the stomach as I keeled over in pain. One time his knee made contact with my bloody nose andi heard a sickening crack near the top of it. Had he seriously just broken my nose.

"Since you can't seem to stay away from the boys, we're going to make the boys stay away from you," he reasoned with me.

My eyes widened as I realized what he meant. He brought the knife to my face, running the blade lightly along my cheek as if trying to figure out what design would be the best for his face.

Suddenly, I had the impulse to fight back. And I actually did this time. I shoved him out of the way. He knocked his head on the railing of the staircase, knocking himself out. He wasn't going down without bringing me down with him as well.

I was out before I reached the bottom of the wooden stairs .

Jeb would no doubt wake up before I did. Now what he was going to do to me before I woke up, there was no telling.

**Sorry guys, I was out of town for two days. Plus the internet in my neighborhood has been completely whack, so I couldn't update. **

**Please critique!**


	11. Chapter 11

**I worked for six hours on this chapter, you better be happy with it. **

Max POV

He was gone when I woke up that morning, a small trail of blood where he must have cut himself on his fall from the top of the stairs.

Jeb's episode last night had been the worst one that I have experienced in my life. Almost seemed like it was worse than all of them combined together. I think that he must have done some more damage while I was asleep because I felt a pain in my head similar to when he knocked me out when pot or pans.

Why was I walking around school when I feared that I might have some internal bleeding? Because I couldn't go to a hospital without explaining what happened, along with the scars and bruises from before. Also, I didn't want to risk the chance of running into Jeb while I stayed home from school.

First period aas especially a pain in the ass because Fang kept asking if I was okay. I just ignored him the entire time, partially because I didn't want to waste my energy coming up with a lie.

"What's wrong?" He asked for the thousandth time.

"None of your business," I hissed through clenched teeth.

"God, why can't you-

"Mr. Rider, is there a problem?" Mr. Dawson asked from the front of the room, cutting Fang off in front of everyone. The entire class, of course, turned around to gape at the two of us.

"No, sir," Fang muttered his answer.

"That's what I thought," Mr. Dawson replied, returning back to his rant about the importance of grammar in college.

His friends were smirking and making snide comments about the two of us. The fell finally rung. Ha! Saved by the bell. Unfortunately for the both of us, I had forgotten my pencil on my desk. Something more interesting caught my interest though.

"You're going soft, man," Fang's friend, Sam, told him.

"I have to be soft get some of that," Fang defended himself.

Were they talking about me?

"Why would anyone want to get with that Max chick?" Sam asked, disgusted.

"Because she's a challenge and I like challenges," Fang explained.

Not wanting the two of them to knock that I had heard their conversation, I walkd into the room nonchalantly.

Fang's face was priceless.

"What's you problem?" I snapped. "I forgot my pencil."

A look of relief washed over his face.

"Oh," he said. "Go and get it then. "

I grabbed the pencil while Fang stalled at the door.

"By the way, do you want a challenge?" I asked.

He nodded his head hesitantly, not sure that he really wanted it.

"Good, because I have one that's impossible," I said. "Me."

I shoulder checked him, leaving him speechless.

There was a game after school that day. This meant that the school was empty and the busses weren't running until after the game because they would practically be empty since everyone would be at the game. Except for a few stragglers here and there, I ruled the hallway where my locker was. I was going to have to wait until the busses came to go home, so might as well clean out my locker.

Fun, right?

Hell no.

I sensed a presence behind me.

"Nudge I thought you w-

Nudge already left.:

I took a step back and bumped into Fang, leaning towards me with one hand resting on the lockers bhind me.

Before he could trap me with his other hand, I booked it down the hall.

My knes were almost giving out while I ran, so Fang easily caught up to me. He had fun while blocking my way, grasping my shoulders. He spun me around so that my back slammed hard up against the lockers, about twenty away from mine. I suppressed a cry of immense pain.

"Fang!" I yelled in a warning tone.

I wasn't greted by the usual overly charming and concerned Fang, but with something else entirely. He had that dark look in his eye that told me that there no escaping without one of us shedding some blood. My stomach turned into knots and adrenaline surged through my veins.

"Let go!" I demanded.

"Would you just trust me for once?" He snapped.

I hit his chest with a weak fist, trying to push him away from me. All that I managed to do was get him to put a hand on either side of me, getting me even deeper into trouble.

"Would you-

He shut me up by covering my mouth…with his lips.

At first I fought back with everything that I had left, which wasn't much. He grabbed my hands with one of his and held them to his chest for a minute, giving me the chance to turn away my head from his. I managed to yank my hands out of his and start beating at his chest again. I wasn't even angry at him, I just needed to let some of my anger from the last year out. Fang just happened to be the one that had to take it. He let me for a while before grabbing my hands and pinning them to the lockers behind me.

He kissed me again, this time not with so much force, but with a determination. I relaxed my fists and started making myself breathe slower. My heartbeat on the other hand wasn't so slow. It had surged to an unhealthy level at best. I almost started kissing him back. Actually, I did. His hands released the grip on my wrists. He put one on the back of my head, angling his head to deepen the kiss. I put both around his neck as he wrapped another arm around my waist, bringing me dangerously close to him. He leaned more against me while I leaned against the wall for support.

Wait…what the hell was I doing?

I pulled back, having to force it a little bit.

We both looked at each other and take gasps of air. Had we even breathed that entire time at all? I wouldn't be surprised if we didn't.

What are we doing?" I asked him, swallowing hard. "This can't happen."

"What?" I whispered, still breathless from the kiss.

He brought his hand down as if he were going to slap me. My instinct kicked in before my common sense did. I flinched big time, actually thinking that Fang would ever have the nerve to hurt me. Who knows? I had thought that my dad would never lay a finger on my and look at the condition that I'm in. I chovered my face with both of my hands. Instead of actually slapping me, he brought his hand to the back of my head. With the other hand, he tipped my chin up, making me look at him.

"Max, you know that I would never actually do that, right?" He clarified, afraid that I actually thought he might.

"NO," I mumbled.

"Then why do you flinch?" He challenge, returning back to the Fang that I actually knew, challenging and questioning every word that I ever said.

Shit.

I shrugged.

"Maximum doesn't flinch. Maximum doesn't let people push her around. Maximum doesn't cower. Maximum doesn't lump. Not the one that I've known since fourth grade," he observed. "Why the change this last year?"

He had actually noticed the change?

"Things have changed in the last year," I sighed.

"What things?" He pleaded with my, stroking the hair that had strayed onto my forehead during our little make-out session.

I just shook my head.

"Max, just tell me, please," he implored/

"The Fang that I know doesn't plead," I told him before taking a breath and finally mustering up enough strength to shove him so hard that he stumbled and hit the other wall. With him hot on my trail, I was barely escaping out of the school doors and onto the street.

Everything happended in slow motion. Fang shouted my name, demanding for me to get the hell out of the street where there was a car breaking, trying to avoid me. I stopped to look over my shoulder at the car he had been warning me about. There wasn't even enough time for a deer in the headlights moment before the car hit.

Even though that car did hardly more than tap me at less than ten miles per hour, I went down. The impact had been too much for my condition. I fell below the car before it braked completely.

"What the hell , Max?" Fang was yelling at me now.

He pulled me out from under the car, and pulled me into his arms. My head rested against his chest as he wrapped his arms around me, rocking me back and forth.

The driver of the car, ironically, was the school nurse. She rushed from her drivers seat and started taking my pulse. The pulse had dramatically slowed from less than two minutes before when Fang and I had been stuck together like glue.

"That hit should have been this devastating to her system, especially someone as tough as Max," she said, talking to Fang and not me. "There has to be something else that happened before."

"What…do you mean?" He asked her anxiously.

"There's something else going on," she informed him.

He looked down at me nervously, whispering something about staying awake and not quitting on him.

"I better not wake up in a hospital or I'll never speak to you again," I warned him before fading out.

Yet again.

**I just realized how much Max passes out...don't worry, this will be the last time (though Fang might pass out when Nudge is about to have her babies. And yes I mean babies as in plural). **

**For those of you that were telling me to hurry it up, I hope that this satisfied you. =)**

**PLEAASEE REVIEW. **


	12. Chapter 12

Nudge's POV

"I want you out of my house at the end of the month if possible," Anne, my foster mother told me, looking sad but decided.

"Could I ask why?" I asked, curious.

"You know why," she answered, looking down at my stomach in a longing for her own. "If you really can't find another person to live with, then you can stay."

I nodded. "Anne, I…well, are you going to contact social services?" I asked her.

"Of course not, I don't know for sure that you'll end up in a good home," she reasoned. "But if you have a friend that you could-

There was a knock on the door, postponing this conversation for hopefully a minute or two before I told her that I was living with my best friend's brother in his apartment. Oh, and I might get to mention the fact that he wasn't actually the baby's father.

Anna looked at me with exasperation and relief at the same time. How could someone feel those two emotions at the same time?

"Is Nudge here?" I heard a familiar voice ask at the door after she opened it.

"Why yes, she is here," Anne gave me away.

She turned at the door, giving me a look that told me I had a lot of explaining to do. Of course I did.

Iggy.

That was confusing enough in itself.

**Sorry if this chapter was a bit disapointing...my creativity is totally drained this weekend. **

He used to be a player before apparently changed into a 'responsible' young whippersnapper. There was reason for it too. His eyes were the deepest blue that you have ever seen in your life. His blonde hair blended perfectly with his beach tan. If you want a good idea of what he looks like; he looks like a younger version of Alex Pettyfer (**a/n that's actually who I hopes plays Iggy in the movie :D).**

Except, just better looking.

I was a pregnant outcast that had never been popular. If I were popular, then a guy like Iggy might have been my friend. But Anne didn't know that Iggy was Max's brother.

"Hey…Iggy," I greeted him hesitantly, waving at him, but not taking another step towards the door.

He smiled warmly, walking in and kissing me on the cheek.

Anne stood shocked at the door, staring at the two of us.

"And who might Iggy be?" She looked at both of us for an explanation.

"Well, Nudge didn't want to shock you, but I'm the father of the baby."

Anne and I gaped at him.

"The what?" We both asked together.

Anne was to involved in her own shock that i could easily conceal my own from her, even though I had been living with her for the past three almost four years.

"So, Nudge is going to be living with you?" She asked him, looking at him cautiously. "Are you sure that's a good idea?"

Iggy glanced at me and spoke before I had the chance to protest.

"Of course it is, I mean I want to be a family," he gave me a look that told me to shut up. Where else was I going to go exactly? "I want to live with my son or daughter, along with their mother."

"Are you two…together?" Anne asked, noticing our lack of closeness.

Iggy shrugged.

"Not really," I answered. "But…

"…that could always change," he finished for me. "We just want to have our baby and then we'll figure it out."

Anne narrowed her eyebrows in suspicion. "How old are you Iggy?" She asked.

"Eighteen."

Technically, it was illegal for an 'adult' to have sex with a minor in our state, but Iggy would have been seventeen during our fake conception. Right? I didn't know when his birthday was, but I was pretty sure it was some time in the early spring, before I got pregnant, in January.

"Ah, um…as long as Nudge is sixteen before she has the baby, you two should be completely fine as long as you have a steady income as well as a daycare service," she explained.

I shrank down in my seat.

Iggy smiled. "Oh, don't worry about the income, I've got the money taken care of."

I looked at him. In all the time we had spent together in the last month, I had no idea what he actually did for a living. Whoever was his employer was, he was compliant at least to his requests for time off. And he paid well, at the looks of his apartment. What exactly had Iggy been doing while he was gone?

"That's great," Anne still wasn't too srue of the situation, but was feeling better and better about it by the minute.

"I know this is a lot to ask from you, but could you hold off for a couple weeks until she comes to live with me?" He requested. "I want to surprise her with an amazing room for her and the baby."

The look on Anne's face when she heard him was yet again even more priceless.

"Yeah, that's fine with me, as long as you take good care of Nudge," she bargained.

"Oh, believe me, I will take very good care of Nudge," he assured, putting his arm around me. "Very good care."


	13. Chapter 13

**Okay, so for the last four or five months I haven't posted and I'm really sorry about that. I'm not going to make up excuses like...oh I had family crap (grandma died) or school (two AP classes, three honors), because I know that I shouldn't stop writing for any reason but breaking both my hands or dying. So I reaaallllyyy hope that this chapter makes up for it (probably not, but we'll pretend it does). So, this is my Thanksgiving present to you and I hope you enjoy :) **

Max POV

I first woke up in a fog, my head pounding and my pulse throbbing, but when I opened my eyes, I was relieved to know that at least it was a vaguely familiar place.

"What am I doing here?" I asked Fang who was sitting in a chair next to the bed...his bed.

"You got hit by a car," he reminded me.

I let out a shuddered breath. That would explain the broken ribs and the bump I could feel growing on the back of my head. "Why didn't you take me to a hospital?"

"You threatened me and told me not to," he let out a dry, humorless laugh.

"Since when do you listen to me?"

"I just can't win with you can I?"

I shook my head no, instantly regretting it because shards of glass were exploding on the inside of my brain. "Did my dad do it?" I couldn't remember anything about getting hit by a car, just that I had run out into the street to get away from Fang.

His eyes narrowed. "Why would your _dad _do something like that?" He look horrified by the thought. "Is that where your bruises always come from?"

I shook my head no instantly, too quickly and we both knew the real answer to the question. "Why does it matter to you, Fang?" I snapped, feeling the acid of my words in my throat. "You could have any girl in the school, hell in the district and yet you still insist on making my life hell."

He looked taken aback. For the second time this week (and probably in his life) he was rejected. And not to mention by the same person. "I didn't realize that getting slapped around by your dad was not hell already."

"Shut up," I told him, my voice turning to ice. "I never asked you to help me. I never asked you to be a part of my life. And I sure as hell _never_ asked you to give a shit about me."

"No, 'gee, thanks for not telling anyone, Fang'," he muttered. "You always have to deal with everything by yourself, you can't accept help from anyone, can you?"

It was true, and I wouldn't even try to disagree with him. But what I needed to know was; why did he care so much? I used to make him eat dirt on the playground when we were in pre-school. And then in elementary school when we were in every class together but fourth grade, I always purposely didn't give him a Valentine (in elementary school, that's a pretty big deal). There was no reason for him to care, I had never done anything for him, never smiled at him and never talked to him unless absolutely necessary. So what made him care so much? "No, I can't. You know why? Because everyone that I have ever loved hasturned on me. My mom; dead. My brother; left. My dad..." I couldn't finish that sentence, but he seemed to read the silent words.

"I don't want you going back to that house ever again, you understand me?" He had fear in his eyes, fear that I might not come back.

"You can't tell me what to do. You're not in charge of me, remember?" I pointed out.

"I know, but I'm asking you not to, okay?" He was pleading now, a desperation that I have never heard from anyone in my life.

"He'll look for me, Fang. At school. Eventually he'll find out where you live and he'll come for me and might hurt you in the process," I was shaking my head. Fang didn't deserve to be caught in the middle of the crossfire once it came down to it. "I don't want to be responsible for you getting hurt."

"You don't get to make that choice, it's my choice," he stated. I could tell that he wasn't even close to backing down. He wasn't going to let me leave, besides after getting hit by a car, I didn't have much chance of a fight against him anyways. However, when I got better in a day or two...

"So let me get this straight, you're talking about making your own choices while holding me against my will?" I questioned, slightly confused by the irony.

"Yup, pretty much," he nodded.

"Fang, I need to go, ok?" I sat up, but he flew up from the chair and pushed me down by the shoulders.

"The nurse told me you should keep down for the first half an hour that you're up, alright? Then, I'll take you wherever you want to go."

"What nurse?" I asked, grabbing at his hands so he would let me go, but he didn't budge. "I thought that you didn't take me to the hospital."

When I didn't stop clawing at his hands on my shoulders, he grabbed my hands and pinned them above my head. This was different from yesterday though, more comforting and reassuring instead of so forceful and greedy. He swung a leg over so he hovered over me. "Funny thing, Max, you ran out in front of the school nurse."

I raised my eyebrows and gave out a small laugh, even though my ribs hurt. No matter how messed up the situation was, a nurse running over somebody was pretty amusing. There's no one better to run over a person than a nurse (although a doctor just might pass it). "Really?"

"Yeah, really," he grinned at the irony.

He stayed like that for a couple minutes (or more, I had no perception of time to be honest). Gradually he let go of my hands with one hand and stroked my hair with the other. At that point in time, it wouldn't have mattered if he was holding me down or not because I was paralyzed, incapable of even the thought process. If I could have thought, my head might have exploded. He leaned down closer and closer until our foreheads touched..nose touched. Just before our lips touched, I brought my hand up to his face and shook my head.

"Not now, Fang, just not right now, okay?" I pleaded, needing to take things one step at a time.

"What's wrong?" He asked, his dark eyes clouding with worry, even more so than before.

"I...can't," I couldn't explain it. I mean, this was a huge change of heart for such a short amount of time. Just two minutes ago, I had been snapping at him for caring...now he was on top of me about to kiss me.

"Okay," he accepted. With no warning at all, he gave me a quick, light peck on the lips and laid down next to me on the bed. Sliding his arm underneathe me, he raised me up slightly and pulled my head until it rested on his shoulder.

"Why do you care?" I asked, this time truly curious, not harshly defensive like before. "I mean, really?"

"Because you're not like the other girls. All the other girls that I can have, they're not strong. You're strong, Max," he stated.

"Not really, I haven't been able to kick your ass yet," I muttered.

"Guys don't like girls that are stronger than them," he explained. "It's bad for their ego and they're afraid that if we can't hold them back from something, then we can't protect them."

Or, for some guys other than Fang, they just liked to be able to physically threaten their girls and 'keep them in their place'.

"What are you saying?" I asked.

"I want to protect you, Max. Before yesterday, I was a little worried about you and the cuts. But I realized yesterday when I finally tested you, I needed to protect you from whoever is hurting you. Maybe before I just thought that I could be the good guy and give you some small help and be done. But after you got hit by that car I know I want to do so much more than that."

Closing my eyes, I focused on breathing in and out. Though I could still feel the pain from the car, that was just the physically. But every emotional burden from the last couple years had been lifted off of my shoulders for the time being. Laying there in Fang's arms, I had never felt safer in my life.

**This was a big stepping stone for Fang and Max, but this is only the beginning of their journey. Iggy and Nudge however...anyways, both couples have yet to say the l-o-v-e word yet. **

**I really, really hope you liked it, I spent all day on it (partially in favor of avoiding conversation with my family). But I intend on doing a lot more chapters SOON, I promise. Reviews, though, will just motivate me even more ;). **


	14. Chapter 14

**Okay, so I haven't done anything for Iggy and Fang yet...yes, I have a very intense BROmance planned out for these two :) haha. So this is how they meet...or re-meet since they went to high school together, but never really knew each other at all. **

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Third POV

She was sleeping so peacefully, Fang hated the thought of risking waking her up, but what if it was the school nurse coming to check up on her? He gently lifted her head up and slid his arm from underneathe her. He shouldn't have been worried about waking her out though because she was out. Another impacient knock made him rush to the door, but then he stopped short. It was definitely a male knocking, you could just tell from the demanding nature while a females always knocked like they were afraid someone was going to answer it. What if it was Max's dad?

_Shit _he thought. He hadn't axactly thought about how he was going to deal with this. Being a male, he ran to the kitchen and grabbed a steak knife off of the counter, ran back to the door, cursing himself because he hadn't put in the peephole like his mom had suggested a while ago. Hiding the knife behind his back, he opened the door just a crack.

He found someone that he hadn't expected at all. "Iggy?"

"The one and only," Iggy greeted back, the arrogant phrase not reaching his tone of voice. "Where's Max?"

"What are you talking about?" Fang asked, feigning innocent.

"Goddammit, Nick, tell me where my sister is, will you?" Iggy demanded. "Please tell me my dad didn't take her with him."

Fang opened the door wider, still thinking about whether or not to let Iggy in. He hadn't really put two and two together, but they both had the same last name. But otherwise, they were completely different in personality, eye color. His skin was pale white, hers was...like a white Mexican. His eyes were blue, hers were brown. Besides the last name, no one would ever guess that they were siblings.

"Okay, come on in," he skeptically invited Iggy in.

"You going to use that or what?" Iggy pointed at the knife that peeked out from behind his back.

Fang sighed and set the steak knife on the table next to the couch, then looked up at Iggy a bit sheepishly. "Thought you were someone else."

"So, where is she?" Iggy persisted.

"She's in my room...she's sleeping it off."

Iggy's face turned to disgust. "Sleeping _what _off exactly?"

"Sleeping off an accident, she got hit by a car," Fang explained, putting up his hands up in the universal "chill" sign.

"What?" His eyes widened. "She got hit by a car? Why isn't she in the hospital?"

"Because she refused to go, but it's good, I've got a nurse on call and if anything goes wrong, then I'll call 911."

Iggy took a shuddering breath. Finding out that your sister was just in a car crash wasn't exactly something you take calmly. I mean, at least Max wasn't with their dad for now. He'd had a suspicion about the whole abuse thing, but he hadn't confirmed it until a couple nights ago when he staked out his own house and his dad had knocked Max out after hitting and kicking her so much that she just finally collapsed from the pain. He had wanted to go in and kill his dad right then and there, but that would be stupid beyond measure. He had to think this through, make it reasonable and rational. This time he couldn't fail Max like last time when he abandoned her and left her to deal with dad's wrath alone. It's not like he knew that dad was ever going to get this bad. If he would have known that back then, he would have taken Max out of that house kicking and screaming if he had to.

"How bad is it?" Iggy asked, just as concerned as Fang had been earlier that morning.

Fang shrugged. "I'm not really sure, but it's not that bad. The car was barely going five miles an hour."

"Anything broken?" Iggy questioned.

"She won't admit it, but I think that she might have some bruised ribs. Not like you can do much for that stuff, can you?"

Fang stepped aside so that Iggy could step all the way inside. Just for the sake of it, Fang looked around the hallways before closing the door and locking both locks. Usually he just put the chain lock on.

"Want a beer?" Fang asked.

Iggy shook his head. "Glad to know my sister's got such a...classy guy on her hands."

"Don't I recall you being sort of the party guy in high school?" Fang smirked at Iggy.

"Touche," Iggy acknowledged. "I shouldn't being complaining...it's better for her to be here than with you than for her to be with my...father anymore."

"Yeah...about that," Fang started. "What exactly is going on there?"

Iggy shook his head, still unable to believe that his dad was capable of that kind of stuff. What kind of father could do that to his child?

"He beat the shit out of her, Fang," Iggy shuddered at the thought.

"How bad are we talking about?" Fang questioned.

"It's bad, Fang, really, really bad. We're talking more than just some hitting or backhand slapping," he stated. "He knocks her out. And then after he knocks her out, he still kicks her."

Fang raised his eyebrows, unable to accept the fact that Max, of all people, went through this hell every day. "How do you know this?"

"I've been staking out my own house for the last couple of weeks. I had to watch three times while he would...you know. I had to check to make sure that it was real...I couldn't believe it at first, but after three times, of course I know that it's true now."

"So you sat by and watched while your sister was being knocked unconscious?" Fang clarified.

"Believe me, I hated it. But I had to think it through...no one ever wantsto be _that _kid. I couldn't just run in there and take him head on. What if he had a gun? He might go crazier and kill us both," Iggy pointed out. "I needed to be rational and reasonable about this. I only have one chance to do this and I don't want to fuck it up."

Fang, though he hated admitting it, he knew that Iggy was right. He was the type to be the 'big guy' and run in to save someone, not wait it out. He wouldn't be strong enough to let Max go through that. "Three times, though?"

Iggy winced. "I had to find the perfect time to get her away."

"So you don't think we should let her go back to that house?" Fang questioned.

Iggy shook his head in horror. "Oh, God no. We're never letting her go back to that house ever again." He sank down on the reclining chair across the coffee table from the couch.

"Are we going to try to reason with Max?" Fang asked him, still thinking about how to handle the situation.

"Reason? With Max?" Iggy scoffed. "That's an oxymoron."

"That...is a very good point, my friend."

"Oh, we're not friends." Iggy stated with a serious face. "Any guy that's with my sister has a few...trials to go through first."

Fang ran a hand through his hair nervously.

Iggy couldn't hold onto it anymore. "Dude, your face is priceless." Fang gave a skeptical laugh along with Iggy until he stopped short. "But seriously, if so much as one tear from her is because of you...you're dead."

Fang didn't doubt it one bit.

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**Okay...so tell me what you think :). What else do you think should happen between Max and Fang? Nudge and Iggy? Oh, and I found a way to bring Ella in but I'm keeping it a surprise until I update that chapter. I'm definitely going to bring Gasman and Angel into the mix somehow...some way. I have a few thoughts that haven't processed themselves into the plot yet so we'll just have to see. **

**3 Review...and you will recieve an amazing next couple chapters. **


	15. Chapter 15

**Just a little bit of a clarification from the chapter 14 post...Iggy knew where Max was and stuff. Well...Nudge knows about the whole Fang thing with Max, so she just guessed that Fang had taken her to his house. Since Nudge is getting...closer to Iggy, she's also talking to him. And also since Max and Nudge are best friend, Iggy would of course ask Nudge if she had any idea where Max was. Soo...I hope this all makes sense to you guys :P. **

**xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo xoxoxoxo**

Max's POV

The room felt empty to me for some reason. As I recalled everything that had happened with Fang and I before I had fallen asleep yet again, my mind nearly went into overdrive. If it were a computer, the mouse would be frozen right now and it would it would start shaking. I sat up, not regretting it as much as I had expected. I had expected my head to explode in pain, but it just spun a little.

"She doesn't need to get anything, I've got enough to cover everything for her," who was Fang talking to? Was he talking about me? He had already done enough for me, he didn't need to start spending his money on me as well.

"So do I, man."

Was that who I thought it was? Standing up in a flash and flinging the bedroom door open, it was exactly who I had expected it to be. "Iggy? What the hell are you doing here?"

Though taller than me by at least a good half a foot, Iggy has been afraid of me since we were kids. Something about me taking after my mom so much. She had been the kindest preson on the planet, but when you pissed her off good, those eyes of hers may as well have been the wrath of God. Apparently, I have those same eyes. But I honestly doubt that I have anywhere close to that kind of kindness.

"Max, I can ex-"

I cut him off in the middle of his sentence. "Just tell me dad didn't send you to come get me."

Iggy denied it immediately, shaking his head violently. "You and I both know that I'm not letting you go back."

Great, now I had both of them being absolutely over-protective. Good thing I had come when I had, or else they might have talked each other into not ever letting me out of this apartment again. I don't see one of them doing it alone, but I could see the both of them thinking of it together. It wouldn't matter though, I'd jump out the window.

"How'd you even find out I was here?" I asked Iggy, appalled at his guessing skills.

"Nudge...we've...been talking lately," he winced at how bad that probably sounded out loud.

Huh...so that's why Nudge was acting so weird around me lately. She sucked at keeping secrets because she can't lie to me while looking me in the eye. Now this all made sense to me. Of course Nudge would know where I was staying because I had told her I had fallen asleep here before. God, she was such a snitch. But it seemed like there was something more that she was hiding...but what more could she be hiding?

"And?" I snapped. Fang seemed to notice the tension between Iggy and I...he shifted uncomfortably. "I thought I told you to fuck off."

Fang raised an eyebrow while Iggy slunked down in his chair a little. "I was worried about you," he muttered under his breath.

"You should have been worried about me a year ago...but you didn't give enough of a shit about me to stay, did you?" I challenged him. "So why start now?"

He looked at me and decided he'd had enough with my walled up attitude He stood up so we were face to face...well face to shoulder anyways. "I made a huge mistake. A huge, huge mistake. I had to get out of there, Maxie" -I groaned at my childhood nickname- "I couldn't live in that house anymore. Mom was everywhere. Around the corners, in the kitchens cooking those goddamn chocolate chip cookies. How was I supposed to stay? I turned eighteen and I was out."

I snorted at his excuse. "And I'm supposed to just accept you apology, huh?" I questioned. "I don't think so. It's not going to happen."

"You just can't accept that other people make mistakes, can you Max?" Iggy accused. "I'm your _brother _Max, if you can't trust me, then you can't trust anyone."

Fang knew something was coming out of the both of us. When we were kids, Iggy and I fought constantly, he was in boxing and I was in ju jit su when I was about ten and he was twelve. He had the height and weight on his side, but I had the determination on mine. There was always a feeling I got right before I knew we were about to have a fight. I called it the burning flesh because my skin and muscle always started making me burn with fury in my skin and muscles. My dad though...he was the boxing coach, used to be his passion when he was younger but then my mom got pregnant with Iggy and he had to make it a hobby instead of a career. I could stand a chance against Iggy, I had no problem with him and I fighting, but there was no chance of me

"I _did _trust you, but you fucked that up, big time," I told him, shoving him backwards with all the force I had left in me.

He took a deep breath and brought his hands up to shove me back, but just as he was about to, he took a step back and sighed sharply. Before the two of us could go at it again, Fang was up on his feet and in between us so that we couldn't get at each other.

"Max," Fangs long fingers wrapped around the tops of my arms."Your brother wants to help you."

I tried to yank my arm out of his grasp, but his grip was strong and firm. "This wouldn't have happened if he hadn't left."

"What, so you're blaming this on me now?" He yelled, lunging for me again.

Fang was forced into the mediator position, pushing Iggy back. He put his hands out to force us farther away from each other. He pointed at Iggy. "You, sit back down. Max just got hit by a car...she's not exactly in the best place right now."

My brother...if I could even call him that anymore...regretfully sat back down on the chair and glowered at me. It felt like we were kids all over again, but we weren't fighting over the T.V remote or over who mom should pay attention to. We were fighting on a much bigger scale and the stakes were beyond me. Fang seemed to know this better than we did. He set me down on the couch and sat down besides me, sparing no room whatsoever.

"You know...James, I'm sorry but I have to say that it was pretty bad of you to leave," Fang acknowledged, wrapping an arm around my shoulders like it was the most natural thing in the world. I blinked, but I didn't shrug him off like I should have. Just not energy enough to fight it anymore. "But your guys's dad...I don't think Iggy staying would have made a difference."

I knew it wasn't Iggy's fault. I was just mad that he was able to get out, unlike me. I was furious at him for not taking me with him. And I was livid at him for having the nerve to come back and demand that he have a place in my life, have me trust him again. Seriously, how could the guy have the nerve like that. "What are Shaggy and Scooby planning to do, huh?"

"Get him in jail somehow?" Fang guessed. "But Shaggy over there doesn't think that's a good idea, though."

"Well, I can tell you one thing right now and that is I am not going to put my own father in jail."

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**Okay...I NEED HELP! I'm not saying that my summary sucks...it's just really mediocre :/. I've always sucked at summaries and if someone is willing to help me, I am more than happy to take some tips or hints (or, you know, if you wanna write it for me...). **

**On a brighter note, are you guys happy with the last couple of chapter? I hope no one's severely mad at me for abandoning my story child for a while. **


	16. Chapter 16

**So I haven't done much of Nudge and Iggy lately, but I'm going to now :). My main focus is definitely FAX, but NIGGY is not far behind at all. **

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Nudge's POV

I hadn't seen Max in three days...I was really starting to worry about her. I also hadn't seen Iggy since then. Some rumor was going around that Max had been hit by a car. When Iggy asked me where Max might be (he'd already checked the house) I told him Fang's house because that's the only place that I could think of.

"So when are you planning on moving in with the father?" Anne asked me when I got home from school.

"He has a funeral to go to...so we're going to have to postpone it for a few days," I lied. "Is that alright?"

"Nudge...you know that if you honestly don't have anywhere else to stay, you can stay here?" She was breaking, I could tell. She was a push over, always caving if I made her feel bad enough. But I knew I wasn't wanted here, not really. If I stayed, then I knew that she would resent me.

Say Iggy was the actual father, you would think that he would resent me at least a little bit, right? I mean...who wants to be a father at eighteen? Nonetheless, who wants to be an eighteen year old bacholor living with a pregnant teenage girl when the baby isn't even his? No guy I've ever met before would actually want to be a father at eighteen, but Iggy was taking this strangely well. He didn't seem short on money at all, either. I was wondering where that came from because he never mentioned anything about a job. None of this made sense to me. And on top of all of that, he wasn't actually the real father.

I nodded. Anne wouldn't just throw me straight out onto the street if I was pregnant, but I knew how painful it would be for her if she had to watch her foster daughter have a baby after she's tried for years and years and has never been able to have a baby. In that way, I felt really bad for her. It'd be having a cat that eats better than you do. "Iggy is hontly just out of town for his aunts funeral."

"Why does he look so familiar?" Anne was starting to become suspicous, never a good thing when it came to adults. "I could have sworn that I've seen him before."

"He went to my school before," I told her skeptically.

"And how exactly did you meet?" She questioned. This was starting to sound like n interrogation.

"A party..." I lied, though it was how the baby was concieved.

"Nudge..." her tone of voice was disaproving. "Can you really trust this guy?"

"Surprisingly, next to Max, he's the only one that I've ever completely trusted."

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Nudge's POV

Tuesday morning...the first thing that I could think of when I saw Max was "Where the hell were you?"

Max looked at me mwearily. There was something different about her...she was glowing with some type of fullfillment that had been void since the day her mom died. And a fire in her eyes that I hadn't seen since one of her fights with her brother.

I could see her debating whether or not to tell me what happened, but in the end she decided to tell me. "I got hit by a car on Friday."

My mouth dropped wide open. "Did you go to the hospital? How? What-

"Not exactly..." she hesitated.

"Well...then what happened?" God, these pregnancy hormones were getting to me, man. I could only imagin what could happen after I was six or seven months pregnant. But at least by then everyone would know that I was pregnant and I wouldn't have t hide it anymore like I was now.

Someone came up behind her and dangled a delicious smelling paper bag in front of her. "Good morning, ladies."

I looked at the face of bringer of goods and was shocked even more. Fang? "Wha..." It was my turn to be at a loss for words.

"I brought you breakfast, Max," he told her, handing her the paper bag. "And don't think that I forgot you, Nudge."

He tossed a bag that I barely caught with my left hand. Opening it, I smelled a vey, very cinnamony cinamon roll."

I looked back up at Fang and then back at Max who semed completely nuetral to the situation.

"You have a lot of explaing to do."

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Nudge POV

Man, a lot can happen in a weekend. When I started feeling a bit mad about her not telling me that Fang had been latching onto her lately. But then again I had no right to be mad about any of this because I would be moving in with her brother, tha she hated at the moment. Not to mention that I was pregnant and she had no idea.

It felt unnatural seeing Fang with Max. These two hated each other in middle school. Yet here we were...Fang and Max sitting together like it was the most natural thing in the world. From what I could tell, though, it was a good thing so far. She was happier, lighter and more relaxed.

The looks from other people around school weren't as many as I had expected, but there were some nonetheless. Girls walked by with the 'why her' look. None of Fang's friends seemed to care at all, despite the fact that they use to taunt her along with him.

"You know...I think that I'm going to go finish a report in the libary," I told them, not liking the awkward silence that I brought them. "It's due tomorrow and I don't want to have to do the rest of it tonight"

They both muttered an okay before I got up and left.

When I turned arond a few steps down, I knew Fang just might be the cure for Max.

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**God, this is not my best chapter, but I'm hoping for a really good one next time :/. With lots of Niggy. **


	17. Chapter 17

**Okay, like you asked, I'm getting back to Fax ;). **

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Max POV

Nudge took it a lot better than I thought she would at first. Maybe she was in just as much denial as I was about this whole Fang thing. I mean...she hated Fang even more than I did at times...or at least his group of friends. I think it was because she now knew that I knew that she had been talking to Iggy behind my back and she knew I hated hypocrits.

"What 's wrong?" Fang asked me, looking at me from where he sat in Literacy, nudging me with his foot.

I shrugged and then my head snapped towards him in alarm.

"What?"

"The project..." I sighed. "We got so ito the project that we didn't do it."

"Right..." he recalled as well. "We'll do it tonight, alright?"

I nodded, even though I knew that it was due today. "What are we supposed to do?" I asked Fang. "What are we supposed to tell him?"

"Ladies ad gentlemen, I assume that you all have your wonderful reports done and ready for me to look at?" Mr. Johnson grinned deviously at us. Or was that just me?

I heard various moans and groans from everyone in the classroom. Mr. Johnson collected all of the papers from everyone else before had made his way back to our little corner.

"You don't have it, do you?" He lookd down disaprovingly.

"Nope," Fang answered."And we're not going to have it until tomorrow."

"And may I ask why not?"

Everyone was gaping at us now, trying to figure out what was going to happen with us. How Fang was going to react. Apparently, the entire school had heard of our entrance together this morning. I'm sure enough rumors had played out over the hours to last us several lifetimes.

"Because Max worked her ass off while I am the biggest slacker on the planet," I couldn't tell if he was being a smart-ass or not.

"Well, I expect to see it on my desk first thing in class tomorrow. Fang, you will be docked for being late and Max will recieve full credit," Mr. Johnson compromised.

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Max POV

"Iggy?" I asked, "what are you doing here?"

"Just taking a trip down memory lane," he grinned at me.

"Max, I didn't know that James was your brother," the secratary looked at me from her desk.

"Yeah, he didn't exactly show me off when he went to school last year," I recalled. "I was called in from the office?"

"Your brother says he's taking you to a doctor's appointment," she informed me. "Since your father was caught in a meeting at work and couldn't make it."

"Oh, right. I just...thought that was tomorrow," I lied, raising my eyebrows at Iggy. "Let's go, _James." _

* * *

Max POV

"What are you doing?" I demanded as soon as I was in the car, while we were driving down the streets to God knows where.

"Making things right," he answered.

"It's a little late for that," I muttered.

He suddenly slammed his foot onto the break and made a right turn

...into the cemetary. I shook my head at his stupid idea. What were we going to do? Tell mom our deepest most heartfelt thoughts. Oh and then we would feel a sense of _closure. _Right, this was all bullshit.

"Oh, God..." I sighed. "No, we're not doing this."

He shrugged. "Fine, do what you want. But I'm going to go pay respects to our mother on the one year anniversary of her death."

My breath hitched in my throat. It was today? I knew that it was soon, but not this soon. In turn of recent events, I hadn't exactly kept track of the aniversary. The aniversary of my mother's death. We had been such a happy family. I didn't realize the role my mom really had in tying the family together.

"Hold on a second," I called out to him, swinging the car door open and trailing him amongst the rest of the gravestones. Graveyards were creepy and gloomy enough in the first place, but I couldn't even imagine what it was like at night. We threaded through the headstones, searching for my mom's. I made the mistake of looking at one of a little girl named Rose that only lived to be ten months old. We weren't the only ones that had lost someone.

"God, you would think that I would remember where my own mother's gravestone is," Iggy chastised himself.

"It has been a year..." I reminded him. "At least I haven't been here since the funeral."

It still bothered me to talk about mom like she was dead, which I knew she was. But, I guess I was still going through the denial stage of it all, even after a year.

"Here she is!" He was standing about thirty feet away from me. I must had spaced out thinking about mom. My question was; why would he be excited about it?

"Great..." I shuddered with an over-abundance of emotion at once. "Just what I needed to hear."

"Hey, don't be a downer, Maxie," he rolled his eyes at my comment.

"Whose the one that brought me to a graveyard?" I challenged.

"You didn't have to come," he pointed out.

"You didn't exactly gve me much of a choice. I mean how was I supposed to refuse not to go to a doctor's appointment right in front of the secatary?" I shuttered once again the memory of the secratary flirting with my brother. She was what? Forty? And my brother wasn't even nineteen yet. Just goes to show that it wasn't just the men that can be pedofiles.

He let out a hollow laugh, as if laughing some sick irony that had presented itself in the current situation. "We're doing the exact same thing that mom hated the most. We can't even get along when we're visiting our mother's grave."

I cringed at his -very true- words. "Seriously, what happened to you? You've never been this touchy-feely before. So what changed?"

"Let's just say that...I had a little visit with mom," he was a little reluctant to say it because we both knew that it sounded a bit on the psychotic side.

"Oh...what did she say?" I asked, curious as to what mom -or what Iggy's perception of mom- would say.

"She told me...you needed help. I didn't know if she meant dealing with with her death or what. But now that I know...I'm not leaving town until it's all taken care of."

I sighed, staring at the gravestone that had my mom's name on it. Iwas my mom's name but at the same time it wasn't, it couldn't be. My mom was only thirty-seven when she died...she couldn't be dead at thirty seven, right?

"You think it's your fault, don't you?" He asked me. "Your fault that mom died in the car crash."

I took a shaky breath that didn't provide me with any relief. "She wouldn't have been out that late if I wouldn't have snuck out to that goddamn party in the first place."

"It was the damn driver's fault, not yours. The driver was drunk as hell," he reminded me.

"She wouldn't have been there if it weren't for me..." I insisted.

Iggy looked at me solemnly, knowing that there was absolutely no arguing with my logic. "Think about it, she was picking you up because she loved you, because she didn't want you to be stranded at a party that could end up as bad news for you."

"That makes it even worse, Iggy," I looked towards the sky that seemed to be darkening with my mood.

"At least you didn't tell her you hated her the last time you saw her."

I remembered that fight like it was yesterday. He wanted to move out of the house one month before he turned eighteen, but mom wouldn't have it. He was just a party boy that would run himself into debt before he even turned eighteen in the first place. He told mom to screw off and that he hated her before storming out that door. The next day he came back to find out that his mom was dead and he would never get to relive those moments with his mom ever again. For the month that followed, he was torn. As soon as he did turn eighteen, he split and I never heard from him again until now.

"She knew you didn't mean that," I insisted.

"See? That's my point. I've accepted that she wouldn't actually think that I hate her. Just like you need to accept that you the fact that what happened to mom wasn't your fault."

I shook my head.

"But that doesn't matter anymore...what matters is now," he sucked so much at this, just like the rest of the males in the family. In fact, it wasn't just the males in this family, I sucked of this as well.

"What does that mean?" I asked, rolling my eyes and turning away from him again.

He walked around so that he was facing me again straight on. "Dad is...not dad anymore. He's turned into something completely different. I saw him when he beat you up. He's ruthless, merciless and doesn't give a damn if he hurts you bad or not."

"I..." There was no way to respond to that. How would you? I knew that it was true, I knew that there was nothing that I could do to deny it because it was too obvious to. I also knew that I wasn't going to fix it on my own, no matter how much I hated to admit it.

"Look, we don't have to have a Hallmark moment here, but-

"Oh, trust me, we already are," I pointed out, cutting him off.

"Anyways," he continued, "We don't have to be all buddy-buddy, have coffee every Tuesday together like some siblings, but that doesn't mean that I don't love you. And because I love you, I can't leave you again. I can't let dad hurt you anymore."

I finally looked him straight in the eye and socked him in the stomach-hard. He groaned, bending over at the waist. "That was payback."

"Oh, God, what was that for?" He groaned.

"_That _was for leaving me and _this" _I kicked him in the shin. "Is for never contacting me."

"Okay," he complied. "Fair enough. I deserved that."

"Yes you did," I agreed with him.

"Oh, Maxie," he grinned up at me, hands on knees. "It's good to have you back."

* * *

**So this is the closest to heartfelt moments that the Martinez's as a family gets to. Not much of a family for hugging. Haha tell me what you thought and I will get back to FAX...VERY soon. **


	18. Chapter 18

**I know it's been a few chapters, but here come the FAX again :P **

**Max POV **

Never have I ever in my life seen a guy so freaked out over anything as Fang was right now. After recovering from the punch to the stomach, Iggy had tossed me the keys to his sweet jeep and let me drive it back to school. There was high chance of me killing the both of us while driving. But I think Iggy's attittue was somewhere alon the lines of 'we're kill each other at some point or another, might as well be while having a good time'.

I made it back right when the final bell rang, with Nudge's eyes wide with worry and fear. What was even wierder was watching Nudge and my big brother interact with each other, trying to act like there wasn't something going on between them while they were in front of me.

"Oh my God!" She blurted. "Fang was ready to go to the police station to report you missing."

I sighed. "He was?" Great, not only did I have an overprotective brother, but I also had a very, very overprotective...wait what was Fang again? He hadn't exactly claimed me as his girlfriend yet (although that act tis morning might have made it pretty clear) and I surely hadn't claimed him as my boyfriend either. But I was living at his place. Not to mention that I had been sleeping in his bed for the last three nights (I had silently kicked him to the couch). If that wasn't 'together' thenI sure as hell didn't knoew what was.

"Yeah," she confirmed. "When I told him I had no idea where you were he shoved past me and headed towards his car."

"Oh shit," I muttered under my breath, trying to ignore the looks that the two were giving each other. "By the way, will you two please just admit that you have the hots for each other before you burst while trying to contain yourselves."

They looked awkwardly away from each other, both of them avoiding eye contact with me for the time being. There was a moment of silence before Iggy cleared his throat loudly. "We should probably go find Fang."

I nodded, keys still in my hands. "Let's go."

* * *

"You can kill me...but don't hurt my baby," Iggy eyes were wide with concern for his damn 'baby', or in other words, his jeep (which I still thought was pretty sweet).

"Why didn't anyone tell me that my brother and my best friend..." I couldn't finish the sentence without cringing. That could be partially why I was being so reckless with his car...payback is a bitch, isn't it? Oh, and this was just the beginning of payback.

"Because we knew that you would react like this," he gasped fo air as I took another sharp turn towards Fang's apartment just another couple blocks.

Did we seriously just pass a cop that didn't notice this? Law enforcement amazes me sometimes. I stepped on the gas pedal even more, running up to fifty-five in a thirty-five speed zone.

"You know this wouldn't be happening if _someone _hadn't forced me to go to the freaking graveyard," I pointed out.

"No one forced you to go anywhere," he defended.

Hadn't we already had this exact same argument just a couple hours ago. "Fine" - I took one last jeering turn into the parking area, making all of the CDs on hi dashboard fly to his side - we're here anyways."

At the last minute, I slammed on the brakes just in time to not ram into the lightpole. Placing the car in park, I undid my seatbelt and jumped out of the car before Iggy could legitamately kill me. Besides, Iggy and I never did well together in small, enclosed spaces for too long anyways. Like, for example, when we were kids, our parents used to put a line of tape that we couldn't cross. Ha, as if that actually worked.

"We're alive!" He climbed out of the car dramatically.

"Drama queen," I muttered, heading towards the entrance.

I was about to push in the doors when I slammed into them. Except...walls aren't supposed to move, are they? Fang grabbed my arms before I stumbled backwards from the force of running into him so hard. He looked at me straight on, then grabbed my chin and turned my face side to side as if checking for something. "Dude, what is your problem? What's up?"

"Are you hurt anywhere, do you have any bruises?" He asked, frantically.

The day that Fang Rider was frantic...never thought that I would see the day in my life.

"Don't worry," Iggy trailed behind me, still breathless from the ride. "The only bruises she would have would be on the back of her head or neck, from whiplash."

Fang's face twisted up n confusion at seeing my brother. I could practically feel the relief radiating from his skin. "Wait, so you didn't try to go back home?"

"No because I would be dead one way or another," I reasoned. "Either my dad would kill me for being gone for so long. If he didn't do the job, I figured that one or the both of you would do it for him for going back."

Iggy nodded, as if agreeing with me, but Fang's fingers were still wrapped around my arms as if he weren't going to let go if his life depended on it. His nails were going to break through skin if he grasped me any tighter. Man, he had sharp nails for a guy.

"Where were you guys, then?" He looked back and forth from Iggy to me. "I mean both of you just left without telling me anything."

Great, now the both of the were going to keep tabs on my location at every time of the day for the next five years...just perfect. "We were at the graveyard, for our mom." Iggy answered for me, knowing that it would be more painful for me to say it.

Fang's face fell. _Oh shit _I thought to myself...I had kind of forgotten to mention that my mom was dead in all of this chaos the last week. But I thought that he had known. he look on his face told me different. His eyebrws knitted together, as if putting the last piece of the jigsaw puzzle in and seeing the full picture. "Your mom?"

"Well, looks like you two have a lot to talk about then..." Iggy backed away slowly at first and then made a dash for his jeep before he felt the wrath of the both of us.

Sheepishly, I looked up at Fang's face and faked a smile. "So...how was your day?"

"Well," he grimaced. "It started out great...but then someone decided to wonder off without telling me."

Later on I was going to make it very clear that he couldn't keep tabs on me all of the time. I was still a person. For now, though, we were still figuring things out as we settled into our strange, strange lives. I was going to let him keep track of me for a while, but it was going to get old fast. Looking at the situation from his perspective, I knew that I would have been worried as well.

"I didn't have much choice in the matter," I recalled looking at the secretary's face looking at Iggy like she thought he was God. If I hadn't gone with Iggy she would probably call my dad. "You don't have to be mad at me. If you're going to be mad at someone, go be pissed at Iggy."

He sighed and shook his head at my judgement. "I'm not mad at you, Max," he let go of my arms and put a hand on either side of my face making me look him straight in the eye. It wasn't anger, it was fear. "If anything happened to you..." he shuddered at the thought.

"But I'm fine, Fang," I assured him.

He smiled. "You are now, but you weren't for the couple hours that I couldn't find you."

"What do you want me to say?" I asked. "I can't promise that nothing will ever happen to me."

He pressed his index finger to my lips, telling me to be quiet. "Don't ruin the moment, Max."

"Fang-

He cut me off with his look of annoyance, wrapping his arms around me so tightly that I wouldn't have had a chance of escaping if I wanted to. Without me telling them to, my arm wrapped around him as well. With my consent to the hug, he hugged me even tighter, closing the non-existant space inbetween us.

"You're going to be the death of me, Max."

* * *

**Was that way too cheesy? I think that it was way too cheesy for Max and Fang, but...I had to do it :P. I hope you liked it because I worked my ass off for this one. **


	19. Chapter 19

**So it's been a couple days, but here you go.**

* * *

**Max POV **

So I wasn't only one keeping secrets in our 'relationship'. Fang sort of forgot to mention the fact that he had a sister.

As soon as I answered the door, I sighed with annoyance. A middle school girl stood in front of me impatiently. "Sorry, we're not buying Girl Scout cookies," I told her, legitimately thinking that's what she was here for, closing the door slightly.

She put her foot in the door. "Oh, God, are you Lissa?"

That name jerked my head up to look at her. "No...why do you ask?"

"Thank god. She's been stalking Fang since they were twelve, I thought that maybe he finally gave in. Look, I'm glad to see that he didn't give in...but who are you?"

"Max," I answered, opening the door back up again. "Who are you?"

"Ella," she responded, pushing past me with a duffel and a backpack. Well looked like she was planning on camping out at Fang's for a while.

"Ella..." the name didn't register in my head. I dont think I had ever met an Ella in my life. Though she did bear an uncanny resemblance to Fang in a way. Maybe it was the 'in your business' attitude they seemed to possess. "Oh, holy-

"Yeah, I'm his sister," she seemed to read my mind. "He's not exactly...boastful about me, to say the least."

"Well...your brother's not much of oneto be boastful about either," I assured her.

"Are you kidding me?" She scoffed, throwing her stuff down on the couch. "St. Nick is the golden child, the child that every parent dreams of. Me? I have an 'attitude' and get shipped off to boarding school?"

It was all starting to make sense to me now. Ella was the daughter that every other rich family seems to have, the one that they send off to boarding school except for Christmas and summer, take down the pictures, never talk about and pretend like she never existed. Once she turned anywhere from sixteen to eighteen, they would take 'mercy' on her and take her back in, as long as she promised to follow by their rules.

"Attitude?" I asked, curiously. "What does that mean?"

"Well, they call it teenage rebellion while I call artistic expression," she explained.

Well, i was already starting to see the resemblance between her and Fang more and more already.

"It's the middle of the quarter, though..." I thought. "Your parents let you come home?"

"Not exactly..."

Great, not only was I practically forced to live with my...'boyfriend' (Nudge had established it, not me) and now here I was with his dilinquint sister. Well, looks like I might get to meet his parents again after all.

* * *

Max POV

Fang came out of the shower, unaware that his sister was making cookies in the oven. I had to hand it to Ella, they smelled just as good as their mom's cookies. My mouth watered with anticipation and lust.

"What's that...-he sniffed the air, with only a towel wrapped around his waist- "smell? Oh, god, is my mother here?" His eyes bulged.

"No...even better," I crossed my arms and headed towards the kitchen,not waiting for him to follow me.

Ella smiled at me, pressing another button on the oven, working the female Rider baking magic that's out of this world. "Hey, St. Nick," she greeted Fang who was behind me.

"Oh, crap..." he muttered. "Not this again. You already ran away from boarding school last year. You are not staying with me again."

"Oh, I beg to differ. We've both got some things to hide," she looked at me reluctantly. "You tell mom and dad I'm here, they'll find out who else is here."

* * *

**Sooo...looks like the Rider siblings have some issues as well. So, there's Ella for you. Sorry it's so short, I just have so much homework to do before finals :/**


	20. Chapter 20

**So ya...sorry that the last chapter was so damn short, I just had a huge test and then I have more in a couple weeks. But for now I'm going to do a longer one than last time. I'm thrilled that so many people loved Ella's little attitude :)**

* * *

**Ella POV**

Max was...scary. Not the 'I'm going to beat yoo to a pulp way' but in the 'holy shit she's been through a lot' type of girl. She had permanent bags under her eyes from lack of sleep and a clenched jaw. When she smiled, it didn't reach her eyes. Those eyes were so full of pain and betrayal that it hurt just to look into them.

"So mom doesn't exactly know that you have a girl _living with you?" _I challenged Fang. "Again, I don't get why she thinks you're so perfect."

Fang shrugged. "Good point. Beats me. But mom doesn't exactly know that you ran away from boarding school again..." he pointed out. "So...we're both screwed."

"Look, I don't want to get you into trouble," I rolled my eyes. He always thought that I was out to get him when he was actually the only one in my family that I semi-liked. I didn't hate the kid...I just got annoyed walking in his shadow all the time when I thought that he wasn't God's gift to the world.

"Yeah, and that's exactly why you came to my apartment," he was mad at me, I could always tell when he was mad at me. "Why did you run away this time?"

I shrugged. "Didn't like it there. They kind of um...made me do mass every day."

He winced. Fang wasn't exactly a religous type, and he hated the services most of all. Our mom went through different churches, different branches of the Christians faith. Hell, we almost became Mormons and I swear I could hear her thinking abuot becoming Jehova witness. So when our mom went through her Catholic phase when he was thirteen and I was ten, he almost fell asleep out of boredom. "Oh, god...we need to get you into a non-religous school next time."

"Please...anything but Catholic school, I'm begging you," I groaned. The uniforms weren't even plaid, they were kacky with an ugly, faded blue shirt and a dark brown jacket. Brown? Brown does not work with my skin tone at all.

"Yeah, I'll help you with that one," he agreed, thankfully. The nice thing about my brother was that if he knew he would hate something, he wouldnt' try to subject me to the same treatment. "But Ella, you have got to stop doing this."

"Did you ever think that maybe I missed you?" I asked. "My friends? My family?"

"Or the two dozen guys that you left behind," he muttered, making me bite my tongue.

"You're the one that has a girl living with you and you're not even seventeen."

He was speechless, knowing that there was no way that he could argue with the facts. I didn't think that it was bad, or slutty or wrong. I just thought that he was being a little bit hypocritical. But for the first time, I could tell that he actually cared about a girl, actually cared about something other than their body. I mean Max was pretty in a tough-girl sort of way. Fang usually went for the cheerleader type, skinny and skanky. Max was neither of those, which made me glad.

"Anyways, I asked the super-intendent for the tests so I can go into high school. Passed them with flying colors. Not to mention that I have the reading level of a college freshman, math level of a high school junior and can speak French better than the French teacher. If I wanted to, I could go into high school," I told him. "So when you you're convincing mom and dad to send me to a non-religous school, don't forget to mention that little tidbit."

* * *

Max POV

Ella reminded me of me when I was her age. Full of life and full of spice, is what my mom always used to say. Although she had more of a feminine touch inside of her than I did...I was anti-feminine. She'd run away from boarding school (not that I blamed her, Catholic boarding school?) and now the two siblings were trying to figure out what do do now.

But it was eight at night, not the time to drive over to his parents house and get in a fight over something. By the time they even got over there, it would be almost 8:30 and this discusion would most likely take a couple of hours. They'd have to go through all the stages of disapointment (1) shock, 2)anger 3)more anger 4)head in their hands 5)acceptance) and that would take more than just an hour.

"You might as well spend the night," I suggested. She already had her bag here, ready to spend the night. Fang gave me a disproving look, but I ignored it.

"Fine," Fang gave in. 'But you're sleeping on the couch this time."

Which meant that Fang was sleeping in the room with me...

* * *

Max POV

With Ella tucked in on the couch, I began brushing my teeth to get all of those cookie morsels out of my teeth. Fang came in shirtless (not that I was complaining or anything like that) with a frustrated scowl plastered on his face. "She's so dead," Fang muttered quietly to maeke sure that she couldn't hear him. "Mom and dad are going to kill her this time. Last time was their limit."

I couldn't reply with my mout full of toothpastey foam, but I gave him a look of 'chill out', When I spit out the toothpaste, i could finally reply. "I don't get why they don't want her around. She's really smart, according to those tests."

He laughed at the idea. "That's exactly the problem."

I sighed. "You know...maybe she could stay with you instead. I mean she came straight to you instead of going to your parents. Maybe you could do something good for her instead of putting off the parenting to someone else again."

"Our family can't afford to do that," he explained. "There's a reason that you've never heard of her. That no one else has heard about her either."

I slammed my toothbrush on the counter and made my way towards the door before he blocked it. "What was that about?" He asked, his attention turning from his sister's unworthiness to me.

I let out an exasperated sigh. "You guys have a family," I snapped. "You have a family and you're wasting it. Do you know how much I would give to get mine back?"

"Max-

I cut him off by slamming past him. "No, you don't get it, you never will."

* * *

Ella's POV

I heard Fang and Max's conversation in the bathroom when they thought that I couldn't hear them. They thought that they were being quiet, but as the conversation progressed, their voices only got louder.

What did Max mean by 'I'd give anything to have mine back?' So she didn't have a family? Was that it? Maybe this was Fang taking on a pity girl. He was always the 'take the stray puppy home' when he was little, though it disapeared as soon as he went into middle school. Maybe this Max girl was this old Fang just resurfacing after some maturit hitting him in the face. He was a player though, liking his independence. He wouldn't have a girl living with him unless he was really, really serious about her. By his words, looks and body language, I could tell he was.

The whole 'she's a disgrace to this family,' and the 'there's a reason we hide her existance' was something that I had heard from both of my parents (and aunts, uncles, grandparents) before, no big deal. But Fang was always the one that didn't completely agree (even if he didn't defend me), that offfered me some hope that I actually meant something to my family. So hearing this come out of his mouth, it struck a new cord in me. A whole new level of rejection.

At least Max seemed to be on my side, feeling bad for me at least. She had made Fang let me spend the night here. And now she was suggesting that there was still some hope for me yet. That was a new one.

Maybe I really was hopeless, though, maybe I really did need to be locked away for the rest of my life. Sure, I was really smart, a genius even, but what good would that do me if I couldn't fit into the rules of the elitelike the rest of my snobby, rich family? Either way, in the boarding schools or among my family, I would always be the outcast, the girl whose too smart for her own good because she can actually think for herself.

None of that mattered to me anymore, I had accepted that my family didn't like me, that I was an outcast. But I hadn't yet accepted that Fang didn't accept me either, my own brother.

If he couldn't accept me, then who could?

* * *

Max POV

Fang took another shower, even though he had just taken one right before Ella came. I knew exactly what he was doing. He was stalling for time, letting me cool down before he slept in the same room as me. With two females in the house that were mad at him at the moment, he might be worried about the fact that one of us might attempt murder while he was sleeping.

He just didn't get it. My entire family fell apart; mom died, brother abandoned me and dad had turned to abusing me. Sure, I had Iggy back, but that wasn't going to be the same for a very, very long time (if ever). I would give everything to have my family back. And here his parents were sending their daughter off to boarding school because they didn't have the strength to parent her themselves. She was too smart, and that's what they were afraid of. Why waste a perfectly good family? That's what I couldn't seem to get.

Fang didn't lie down in the bed with me like I thought he would, but sprawled himself across the floor on the opposite side creating a tension that you could cut with a bread knife. My stomach clenched, I hadn't meant to snap at him like that. But what he said about his own sister was out of line. Here he had been trying to convince me to make peace with my brother when he couldn't even admit to me that he had a sister.

I have no idea how much time had passed, because it must have been at least an hour because I was half asleep when I felt something on the other side of the bed weigh down on the matress. Fang must have thought that I was asleep because he was trying to be very cautious in order not to disturb me. The covers lifted up slightly and I felt him pull me up (I was pretending to be asleep, it'd be so much less awkward that way) so that one arm was wrapped underneathe me and the other on top. He lifted the covers back over me so that I was all the way covered with the blanket. Fang was warm enough so that'd I'd be completely fine without them.

He brought his lips breathtakingly close to my ear. "You're not alone anymore, Max. I'll be your family."

* * *

**So an extra long one compared to the last chapter. So now you sort of see deeper into the dynamics of the Rider family. I'l try to update as soon as possible 3 **


	21. Chapter 21

**I'm sorry it's been so long. I have been doing finals and then it was Christmas and then the day after I flew out to San Francisco to see my best friend and I just got back today. **

* * *

**Max POV **

I woke up in the middle of the night, confused and wondering where I was at. Every time that I woke up in Fang's room, it still took me a minute to remember what had happened the last few days, but I always remembered.

This time it was because Fang and I's legs were tangled up in a mess while I woke up with my face in his chest. When I tried to slip out of his arms, his legs and arms just wrapped around me even tighter.

"Don't leave," he murmured half asleep.

"You're smothering me though," I argued.

His ams loosened slightly, but not enough for me to get out of it, not that I really wanted to, though. I sighed, letting myself fall back asleep.

* * *

**Ella POV **

How long were those two lovebirds going to stay in that room? I man, it was already nine in the morning. Didn't their school start at like seven? He wasn't one to be late.

What had they been doing last night after I fell asleep?

I looked at the table where Fang kept his keys to his bike and smirked, this was going to be fun.

* * *

Max POV

"Come on, Max, up and at em," Fang tossed a pillow in my face.

"Just five more minutes," I told him, rolling over away from him.

"No, Max," he was not letting up now. "We need to go."

"Sorry to break it to you, Fang, but you don't exactly have the best track record of going to school on time."

"Are you kidding me?" He scoffed. "I don't give a shit about school."

"Then why is it sooo important to get up now?" I asked.

"Ella's missing and so are the keys to my bike.

Oh, how she kept reminding me of me more and more as the time went on.

* * *

Ella POV

I dont get it. Mom and dad have always made sure to keep me in line and when I wasn't, it was off to boarding school for me. But here we are five years later and Fang has a motorcycle, an apartment and a girl in his apartment. How was this a part of their master plan? Oh right, they probably trusted him. By the look on his face when I threatened to tell mom and dad about his new girlfriend, I would bet that he hadn't mentioned anything about this girl. So much for him being the golden boy they thought he was. I wasn't going to rat on him, he didn't rat on me. But they were going to find out eventually.

Besides, this thing didn't go that fast anyways. So they wouldn't be too worried about him. I sighed, this thing was only going 80 mph and no matter how much I put into the gas, it wouldn't go any faster. I would have to slow down soon, I was coming back into town and having mom and dad meet up with me in jail for driving underaged wasn't the ideal place.

Fang was going to be pissed, but he wouldn't say anything, he wasn't a snitch. Plus mom and dad might blame him for not watching me closely enough. They tend to do things like tha, blame you for things that weren't your fault.

He was so lucky, though. Mom and dad got him his first motorbike as soon as he turned eleven. Ever since then he's been able to fly. That's what it feels like when you're going down a hill at seventy mph with nothing between you and the wind. There's no protection. IF you so much as sneeze that could mess you up, make you crash. Just knowing that might stop people from doing it, but it just motivated me even more.

What did I have to live for anyways?

* * *

Max POV

They behaved just like my brother and I behaved when I was Ella's age. She was the sarcastic, rebellious just-turned teen and he was the older brother who felt like it was his job to co-father the daughter because he was almost eighteen, almost an adult. He was trying to tell her what to do. And, to be honest, this lesson was just common sense. Don't drive down the highway on your brother's stolen motorcycle when you don't even have a permit yet. Sounds like a good idea to me.

He could be nicer about it though.

"What the hell were you thinking?" He demanded. "You take my baby out without asking me. Not only that, but you're thirteen years old. And knowing you, you probably went down the high way, didn't you?"

Ella shifted uncomfortably on the couch while I watched awkwardly from the sidelines.

"You did," Fang stated it now, it wasn't a question.

She nodded. "Come on, I had to sit through mass two hours a day and three hours on Sunday," she defended. "I haven't smiled for three months."

Fang's shoulders slumped. "Fine, as long as you tell mom and dad where you are by the end of today, they won't find out about this."

She sighed, knowing that this was a good deal. Her parents would figure it out eventually, so might as well get away with the motorcycle fiasco while you're at it. "Fine, but can I live with you?"

Fang choked on his own spit, coughing with shock. "What?"

"Mom and dad aren't going to want to live with him, so they're more likely to let me live with you than with them. Maybe we can move to a bigger apartment," she suggested.

Fang thought about it for a minute, but then the doorbell rang. "Fang! Are you here?"

Well, guess his mom was going to find out about everything right now.

* * *

**I needed Fang's mom to find out that Max is living with Fang. She liked Max better than Lissa and let's hope it's still that way. **


	22. Chapter 22

**I know I suck for not writing a chapter for like a month or two, but I just have so much damn homework! And I know that writing should come first, but that's not what my parents think. **

* * *

Max POV

Well, their mom wasn't...unfriendly. She was polite enough, but you could definitely tell that she was uncomfortable with the fact that there was a girl spending the night at her son's apartment. If only she knew the real story.

"So...Max," she turned towards me. "Are your parents...okay with this?"

I shrugged, not wanting to tell her the truth, obviously.

"Max's parents are...out of town," Ella lied. "She's a friend of mine from the basketball camp I went to in seventh grade, so I convinced her to come over and spend the night here last night."

"So how are you Max?" She asked me, seeming suspicious. I mean, I had gone over to their house with Fang a couple weeks ago.

"Fifteen," I lied smoothly, realizing that it would be highly unlikely for a sixteen year old and a thirteen year old to hang out randomly.

"Oh, come on the three of you, stop insulting me and just tell me the truth. Fang, how serious is it?" She stood up and crossed her arms.

Fang scratched his head awkwardly, avoiding eye contact with his mom. "It's...getting there."

Ha! Neither of us knew how 'serious' it was yet. We'd gone from hating each other to sleeping together within a matter of days. By this rate, we should be married in about a month, right? By next year, we'd have a kid! I took a deep breath. Calm down, Max, I told myself.

"Like I said, at least you're not Lissa," she sighed, turning towards her daughter. "As for you, young lady, you have a lot of explaining to do."

She kicked her legs up and set them on the coffee table like she owned the place. Ella was just so...laid back that it was funny. I loved her bad ass attitude even while her ass was going to be grounded. "Yeah, I know."

"Just wait a minute," Fang inturrupted before things could get any more escalated between the two.

"What?" They both snapped at him.

"Ella's been trapped in this pattern for way too long; she has a lot more potential that you and dad give her credit for. On one hand, she's a brat that can't stand rules and restrictions, but on the other hand, we've tied her up so tight that she can barely breathe," Fang explained. "I mean...maybe it's time to try something new."

Ella and Mrs. Rider looked astounded at the idea. Not at the idea, but maybe at the fact that Fang was suggesting it. Ella cleared her throat and asked "what were you thinking?"

"Mom, you and dad have never gotten along with Ella, but we get along just fine. She usually listens to me as long as it's not you telling me to tell her to do something. Maybe Ella would be better off living with me?" He seemed surprised at himself, like he couldn't believe that these words were coming out of his mouth.

Their mom squinted her eyes, as if thinking something over and then she actually smiled. "Looks like we better get you two a bigger apartment, then."

* * *

Ella POV

I had no idea what my mom was going to do, but this was beyond any possibility I would have thought of. Mom was always the one trying to get rid of me, get me as far away from her as possible. Maybe this was payback to Nick for hiding Max from her. She might think that it would be payback for Nick, but it really wasn't going to be that bad. I mean, out of all my family members, he was the only one that I could really stand.

"Seriously?" I think my jaw dropped, but I quickly made sure to drop it. I couldn't let my chill rep be ruined, especially not with my family. "You're going to let Fang be in charge of me?"

"If he thinks that it's so easy to control you...might as well prove it, right?" She reasoned. "Let him see how hard it is to have a kid."

I think she was insane if she actually thought that Fang was going to try and 'control' me. He wasn't going to enforce any rules on me that he wouldn't on himself. So basically...don't break any major laws and I was all set. Although he did seem a little upset about the whole motorcycle thing, so I might have to lay off his bike. Other than that, I couldn't think of any rules that he would try to enforce.

"I'm not saying that it's easy," Fang denied. "I'm just saying that it's something that might be a good thing to try."

My mom crossed her arms. She was still thinking about it. The agreement she had been in before was a fake out, used as a scare tactic for my brother to see if he's being serious or not. But crossing her arms was a good thing, it meant that she was falling for it. If she had her hands on her hips, that was a very bad sign. She bit her bottom lip, yet another good sign that meant she was closer to saying yes.

"Well, with the amount of money we spend on your stupid boarding school anyways...we could get a two bedroom apartment cheaper," she observed. "Yes, you can stay with Fang."

* * *

Max POV

It was awkward with Mrs. Rider. She knew that I had spent the night last night, but I don't think she had any idea that I was actually living with Fang. Yet at the same time it felt like she had known all along and she was just guilting me into breaking down and telling her everything.

"Well, seeing as you two are already ditching school half of the day, we might as well have lunch together," she suggested. "How about Enzo's? I hear their Chicken is absolutely amazing."

Enzo's; it was one of the most expensive restaurants in town. There was no way that I would feel even close to comfortable in that sort of atmosphere. But Fang seemed interested, to my disbelief. Of course I forgot that he didn't have a grasp on how much a dollar is worth.

"That sounds good to me," Ella agreed quickly, eager to get her mother on her good side. "I haven't been there in months."

"That's because you haven't been home in months," Fang muttered.

"Exactly," she pointed out.

"Won't you join us, Max?" Their mother was staring straight at me, smiling, but I swear to God I felt like she was looking straight into my soul.

"You guys should go as a family, I don't want to make things uncomfortable," I objected as lightly as I could.

"Oh, honey, Nick has had you come over to our house and you spent the whole night at his house...you're pretty much family whether you like it or not."

* * *

**Their mom is...interesting, I know. Haha I hope you liked her. By the way, she doesn't really hate Max at all, Max is just being paranoid because she feels bad for lying. **

**Anyways...I'll try to update again within the next week or two. (Reviews do speed up the writing process...) **


	23. Chapter 23

Okay, so I'm going to update tomorrow, I promise! But I felt bad for going yet another couple weeks without posting a chapter, so I did a little something else that will hopefully hold you off just for a day.

Maybe or maybe not, but did you notice that I changed the book cover? I found this while my friend was looking up pictures to do quotes on (ugh stupid Instagram kids) and I saw this one and I yelled "Oh my God that's Fang!" Out loud, totally freaking her out.

So what do you think of it? Because I think not only does is look like Max and Fang (though Patterson always does switch up Max's hair color, I can never keep up), but it also captures the intensity of the relationship. Max trusts Fang and knows that he will take care of her in this picture and you can just tell the Fang will never leave her. It's so much better than all of those stupid pictures of couples kissing, because that's cliche. This picture just has so much...intensity (for lack of a better term) and they don't even need to be touching to tell that there's a lot of love going on in between them.

Anyways...I've never been this excited about a picture before. Sorry if it doesn't excite you guys as much as it did with me. I could go on and on about how much I love this picture, but tell me what you think? Tell me if I'm right.


	24. Chapter 24

**Okay, so I had internet connection problems yesterday, so there was no way for me to update my new chapter, but I hope that you guys will forgive me (yet again). **

* * *

**Nudge POV **

Iggy's place was much bigger than I remembered it...probably because the first time I had been here, I'd just found out that I was pregnant. Now that I took a look around the whole place, I realized that it was the perfect place for a baby. No stairs and two extra bedrooms. So if the baby and I stayed in one, there would still be an extra one for another guest. This all made me feel even worse for not telling Max...about any of this. Not only was I pregnant, but her brother was taking the responsibility of the baby that wasn't even his.

"What are you thinking?" He asked, setting a box of my stuff down on the counter. I only had two boxes of everything that I've ever owned.

"I'm thinking that whatever is in the oven smells really good," I observed, sniffing. "What is it?"

I did read somewhere that your sense of smell seems increases a lot while you're pregnant," he laughed. "And it's a special type of pizza that my mom used to make for Max and I when we were kids."

So that would be why it smelled so familiar. Before Max's mom died, I was over there 24/7. I ate dinner over there all the time because Anne didn't exactly cook. It was more of a vegan diet. She didn't care what I ate, but she silently made it clear that she wasn't going to be making special hour-long dinners for me very often. After having one too many TV dinners, I decided to eat home made dinners whenever possible. Their mom's pizza was one of my favorites.

"Oh yeah, I remember."

"That's right, you were Max's annoying friend that never left," he teased.

"No, that would just about sum it up," I agreed with his joke.

"You were easier than Max...I think that our parents would secretly liked to have traded you for her," he scoffed at his sister. "I know I would have liked Max to be a little bit more bright like you. She was always so..."

"Realistic," I finished for him. Max wasn't exactly a pessimist, she just said things as they were. And a lot of the time, those things were fairly bleak.

"Finishing each other's sentences already?" He pointed out.

"You're somewhat predictable," I admitted. "And right now, that's exactly what I need in my life."

* * *

**Max's POV**

I sat there with my lips spread thin and my nails biting into the palm of my hand. On the other hand, Ella and Fang seemed at ease. Especially Fang. He seemed more relaxed than I had seen him, well, ever. I could already tell that he was a momma's boy. It wasn't obvious. He didn't try to please her. No, he wasn't the brown nosing type, he was more of the 'says the right thing' type. For some reason, I could see straight through it and so far I seemed to be the only one.

"So, Max," his mom, whose name I learned was Linda, made me almost jump out of my seat.

"Yes?" I responded, trying to be polite but curt at the same time.

"What do your parents do?" She asked. "Would I possibly know them?"

"Probably not," I answered. "They're not hands on parents. We kind of live separate lives."

It was true. The only interaction that my dad and I had was the times he was either hitting me or yelling at me. Other than that, I made my own dinner, did my own cleaning, did my own homework and took care of myself. I avoided contact with him as much as possible.

"That's too bad," She seemed to be sincere. "Even though Fang has his own apartment, he usually comes to dinner at least twice a week...which he hasn't done this last week, now have you dear?"

"Sorry mom," he muttered behind a glass of Pepsi.

"That's quite alright, because I know that you're going to be bringing Max to dinner on Friday night, right?" She was subtle, yet blunt at the same time. I had always admired that quality. The ability to get your point across without telling them to do it straight up.

"Of course, mother," he agreed hesitantly.

* * *

**I know it's short, but that's because I cut a lot of the lunch with Fang's mom part out because it just drug on and I needed to update before one of you guys kidnapped me like you threatened to do before. But next chapter should be interesting because of Fang's dad. He's a really interesting man with a lot of good characteristics that wants to include Max with the family. But because of Max's dad, she's not so sure of him, which should prove to be an interesting interaction between Fang's dad and Max. **

**3**


	25. Chapter 25

**I know I suck, but I've just lost all creativity for this story for the last couple of months. The characters are just not turning out like they were supposed to in my head so I'm going to have to recreate the entire plot that I already had thought out, so it's taken me a while to decide where to go from here.**

* * *

**Ella's POV **

I don't recall having a normal conversation with my mom for the last five years. The only communication we had now was text, and that was slowly fading as the months dragged on at the boarding schools that she enrolled me in. I may hate my mother at times, but, as much as I hated to admit it, I missed her conversation and prescence a ton. Max made all the difference, though. She was much more cunning than she looked; every time she could sense my mom and I were getting into a touchy subject (which was more than half of everything) she quickly, but smoothly changed the subject to a safe topic, like the weather or school lunch food.

For the first time in two years, my mom and I laughed together.

"So, how did you two meet?" My mom stared directedly at Fang, who had been hanging back in the shadows the entire lunch, just letting all of his female relatives do the talking.

My brother grinned devilishly at Max. "Kindergarten," he grinned even wider. "Max stole my lunch box the first day of school."

Max's eyes widened. "Oh my God, was that you?" She snorted, very unladylike (which, to my surprise, didn't upset my mom). "You were the kid with the snot running down his nose and glasses?"

Fang's grin faded, but just slightly. "Yes, and you were the one that pushed Lissa off the playground and gave her a bloody nose."

Max shrugged at him. "Everyone else wanted to do it."

My mom said the most unexpected thing. "Good job, Max."

"Mom!" I exclaimed. "Since when do you promote violence?"

She cleared her throat and sipped at her iced tea, hesitating to answer the question. "I usually don't, but that girl has gotten on my nerves since her mother and her would come over to our house uninvited asking to play with Nicholas. She's had it coming to her."

Max had just done the impossible.

* * *

**Max POV **

One hour I'm going to lunch with my boyfriend's mother, the next I'm with them looking at two-bedroom apartments. But of course, their mom still had no idea that I was living with Fang. I figured that she wasn't going to anytime soon either, but I never knew how things were going to go when I was with this family.

"This one's nice," Fang's mom remarked. "Close to the school, close to downtown. It has a nice view of the mountains. Then there's the pool in the back."

"Remember you're not living here, mom," Ella reminded her a little bluntly.

"We have a pool at our house, of course you haven't been home in so long that you might not remember."

Ella opened her mouth, about to say something snarky back, but I gave her a warning look. I didn't want her to piss off their mom because I wanted this two bedroom apartment so that I could share a room with Ella when I got sick of Fang, and not have to sleep on the couch. Or at least I could have the couch because Ella wouldn't be on it like she had been last night.

"Yes, this is a really nice apartment," Ella responded instead of the comment I knew she was going to say before, giving me a grimacing smile like it hurt her to be nice to her mom.

"But this is a little bit cramped for you," their mom waved for all of us to follow her out the door. "We're going to look at something a little bit different, something that I've had in mind for a while, but I've been waiting for the right time."

I had no idea what she was talking about, but I could have sworn I saw a spark of mischief in her eye. So that's who Ella got her spunk from.

* * *

Max POV

There's a wooded area near our school. It used to be nice to go out there to get away from the city, and yet is wasn't so far away. When we drove into the forest, I wracked my mind to remember any sort of apartments in this area. What we pulled into wasn't an apartment complex, but a nice, spacious cabin.

"This?" Even Ella was shocked at the size of the thing. Sure, it wasn't nearly as big as their huge mansion, but it was big in comparison to what a couple of teenagers needed to be able to live. I mean up to four college students lived in a dorm the size of my room.

"Did I ever tell you that your grandma grew up here?" Their mom looked at the cabin with a meloncholy gaze. "Of course, the cabin has been updated since then, but the original building is here."

The real estate agent rolled her eyes at the sappy trip down memory lane that their mom was having. "This is a good space; secluded, but close to the high school-

"We'll take it." she stated, deciding to skip the agent's speel about the great location of the house.

"What?" Fang seemed slightly guilty. They may be rich, but this cabin certainly be cheap to rent. "This is more than two bedroom."

"I know, you're going to need more than two bedrooms if there's three of you." She threw a wink my way.

So, she had known all along?

* * *

**It feels choppy, but I know that I haven't written in so long that I just needed to get one out there. If you guys have any suggestions about what should happen, then please tell me, because I'm having a ton of trouble myself. **


	26. Chapter 26

So** I'm going to take a lot of your suggestions and start focusing in a little more on Iggy and Nudge since Fang and Max have already had their fair share of drama. I'm one of those people that can't stand the couples on T.V shows that have a break up and then make up three times in the course of one episode, and that's what I feel like I have been doing with Fang and Max this whole time. But I also can't stand when shows have a perfect couple that never fight or have obstacles in relationships because that's what makes them stronger. So don't worry, Fax will have it's fair share of problems to come, but for now its time to let **them be happy for a little while.

* * *

**Nudge POV**

"You bought a lot of groceries," I remarked. "Are you sure they're all going to fit into your fridge?"

"I'll buy another fridge if I have to," he teased me. "But I figured with as much as you've been eating these last couple of weeks, you'll eat all of this within the next couple of days."

I elbowed him in the rock-hard abs, any harder I would have fractured a bone. "Are you calling me fat?"

"No, I'm calling you two months pregnant," he corrected me.

"Seriously, this is a ton of stuff...you've already spent enough for me and...them," I assured him. "I don't want to become a burden to you, alright?"

"Not enough, yet. That reminds me, I scheduled an appointment for you for an ultra sound."

"James, I didn't ask you to do that." This was all to much at once. Iggy kept doing all of these things. First he told me he was going to take care of me, but I had no idea that he would get so...passionate about it all. He fell asleep reading parenting books. He'd already installed baby-proof outlets.

"Nudge, you need to have a ultra sound, it's crucial for the safety of the baby and you," he insisted.

There was no arguing with that, as much as I hated to admit it. "Who with?"

"Dr. Henley," he answered. "One of the best doctors in town."

I'd heard of her. "One of the most expensive."

"Nudge, I told you; money is no trouble whatsoever," he reminded me.

He seemed to tell me this every day for the last couple of weeks. It was very important for me to understand this. But what I didn't understand was; how was a nineteen year old high school dropout have this kind of money? He didn't seem to be on drugs, but that didn't rule out the druglord option. There was also the possibility that he was a part of a gang, which was very similar to the drug trafficing idea. Of course I didn't think that Iggy was very capable of any of these things, but it was still a question to ponder.

"It's not just the money, it's the effort and the time that you're putting into all of this. If it was just money , you would just hire someone to take care of me," I pointed out.

"I could," he agreed, "but then it wouldn't really count, would it?"

Was I some sort of charity case to him? Even if I was, it would be really ignorant of be to refuse his help. But what did this 'count' for exactly? I mean, was this some sort of challenge that he needed in order to make him feel better about himself? I sighed. Honestly, it didn't matter because at least he cared enough to do _something. _My dad had walked out on me before I was even born and my mom didn't love me enough to quit doing drugs. Besides Max, Iggy was the first one that actually _cared. _

* * *

**Ella POV **

I couldn't believe it! For the first time in years, I actually had my own room. I had shared with three other girls in this last boarding school. Trust me, it's not fun like the books and movies make it seem like. There was always some type of drama in our room. Some girl had accidentally mistaken someone else's brush (that were the same exact one as hers) for her own and the next day there was a rumor that she had lice.

No more drama!

At least not in the sanctity of my room anyways. Max and Fang may be on good terms, but with their personalities, there was going to be something at some point. So far, it looked like that point was quite a ways away.

Max moved into her own room because...I think Fang snores. She didn't say anything, but with the tired, cranky looks that she had given him the last couple mornings said enough. That could be a relationship killer right there. She put so much thought on where everything went. My mom bought her anything that she wanted, even though Max shied away from it at first.

"You know...I think you should out a little table over by the window for breakfast," my mom suggested. "It can be really pretty in the mornings."

I looked outside the window that she was talking about. Usually I wasn't into all the nature things like all older women were, but she was actually right about this scenery. It was a little cloudy this afternoon, but it made a really cool foggy look in the trees. Even if it was a little bit sinister looking. But the creek just down the hill was visible from the window, along with a minature waterfall.

Fang wasn't involved in any of this at all. He just sat back on the couch and watched us do all the work for him. He didn't even have to do any of the heavy lifting because mom had hired movers. After seeing all of the furniture she had bought just for the living room I was afraid to even mention the accumalitive cost.

Without considering the cost of the couch, I flipped over the back of it, kicking Fang in the process.

"God, Ella, I can see your feet odor hasn't changed at all," he gagged.

It was true...but he was the one with bad breath that could never be concealed by breathmints.

"Ella!" My mom scolded. "That's a brand new couch."

It felt so familiar, so homely and nice. There were a few kinks in the rope, but I knew what this familiar feeling was; family.

* * *

**Okay, so I whipped this one as soon as possible because I know I have a lot of making up to do for the last month or so (of which I was also grounded and on vacation). And then...ummm yeah, like always if you have any suggestions, you know what to do :). **

**BTDubs...I'm driving now :P **


	27. Chapter 27

**Everone keeps complaining about how short my chapters are, but I'm going by what a lot of the other writers on here do; 1000-1500 words per chapter. So, what do you think the length of my chapters should be? I want to make everyone happy, so...yeah, just give me feedback. **

* * *

**Max POV**

I think Fang's mom already liked me more than both of her children. Somehow there had been wedding magazines that had 'accidentally' been put 'misplaced' in my room. I'd quickly stuffed them in a drawer before either Ella or Fang saw them. Throwing them away would be a bad choice though, just in case she ever asked about them sometime in the future.

Ella had actually enrolled in high school with us, despire the fact that she was in eigth grade back in the boarding school. She was wicked smart and I was afraid of what she would do in middle school that you can get away with in high school but is taboo in middle school. Just after lunch, we had Sociology class together. If I thought that having a class with one Rider was enough...

"If you say one more thing about the teacher's hair, I'm going to kill you," I threatened. Donald Trump's hair was a creature all on it's own, and it had a twin, which was the hair of Mr. McCorkle. We all snickered about it for the first week of the semester, but since Ella had come in late, she missed out on it. I had let it go for the first two days, but this the third day of hearing about it and I couldn't take it anymore.

"Fine, but that's just-

"Shut up!" I demanded. Ever since I had ran away, my tolerance level had gone downhill. Also, I wasn't timid or afraid to speak my mind anymore. In Ella's case, my transformation might not be for the better.

"Okay, okay," she agreed. "Where's Nudge?"

These two got along better than peanut butter and jelly. Nudge was talkative and chatty, so was Ella (though Nudge DID do at least 70% of the talking). Lately, though, Nudge was getting a bit more toned down and calm. Ella looked like she wasn't anywhere near that point in her life. Sometimes I forgot that she WAS thirteen. And while she might be more mature in mentality, she's still thirteen in behavior. It was hard to remember these things when I was taking a sophomore class with her.

"She's coming from her Speech and Forensics class," I told her. "But I have to go because Geometry is on the other side of school."

"See you after school," she waved and headed off towards her class.

So much enthusiasm for life. I hoped that I was going to get that back soon.

* * *

**Nudge POV**

I was just waiting for the right time to tell Max about my secret. Well, actually, both of them. I wasn't sure which one was going to be more shocking; the fact that I was pregnant? Or the fact that I was freaking living with her brother that she sorta-kinda hated at the moment (she thought she hated him, but she just hated the things that he's done) and he was sorta-kinda going to be the father of my baby. Did I tell her both at the same time? And if I did, which one did I tell her first? Or, if I did them seperate, which one did I do first then? It was all a disaster. Inside, I knew that Max was going to accept me no matter what. But she was the only person in the world that I actually cared about what she thought about me, which was making this the hardest.

On the other hand, I felt incredibly guilty for not telling her what was going on in my life, more specifically the life going on inside of me. She deserved to know everything, and yet I had told her absolutely nothing. It was honestly killing me inside.

Besides, I didn't want to burden her with mine. For the first time in over a year, she was happy and smiling. Fang even made her laugh every once in a while. Ella made her laugh even more. I mean, the girl was freaking halarious.

"Hey...buddy."

Fang was behind, facing in my direction with a very awkward grin on his face. "Did you seriously just call me 'buddy'?" I asked,trying not to mock him with all my strength. "You do know that my name is Nudge, right?"

He nodded. "Yeah, we've gone to school together for like five years, of course I know your name. But...what I DO want to know is Max's favorite thing to do."

Fang was dedicated to Max more than Max was dedicated to him. Not that anyone could blame her for not wanting to get close to anyone again. He was starting to crack her concrete wall (that also had a layer of brick behind it as well, along with a door of pure steel). He'd already gotten a bunch of information from me; favorite color, favorite food, drink, T.V show, book (not that Max was much of one to read). We had sixth period Speech class together. We hadn't paid attention to each other at all until a month ago when he decided to grab my stuff and set it by him and his friends. They'd treated me awkwardly at first, but now I was practically part of the group, even if I had no idea about the inside jokes they told. All of his other friends had ditched to go smoke pot today, leaving Fang and I alone during class.

I waited until the teacher had finished her sentence about the importance of eye contact to look at Fang.

"Believe it or not...she used to love painting," I told him. "She stopped immediately after her mom passed away because her mom was the one that got her into it, the one that inspired her."

"Do you think that she'll ever pick it up again?" He asked.

I shrugged. "A few weeks ago, I wouldn't, but now that Ella and you have barged into her life...I think it's definitely possible."

"That settles it, then, we're ditching the last two periods and you're helping me pick out stuff."

"For what?" I asked curiously.

"For the attic," he responded. "We're going to get Max passionate about something again. I want to see life in her eyes"

* * *

**Nudge POV **

I was more than happy to ditch my last two periods, a block Math class that I never paid much attention in anyways. Plus, it was for a charitable cause, anyways.

There was an artist botique near our school with canvases and paints, picture frames and anything you can imagine. Heaven would be this, for an artist like Max used to be. Even I thought it was awesome. Colors that you might think would look hideous together actually made a pleasant clashing for an explosion of art.

"What about this one?" He asked, pointing the second most expensive drawing table in the entire store.

I cringed when I looked at the price; 800$. But I knew that he had already seen the price, and he seemed completely unfazed by it. According to his brandname clothes, his car, his motorcycle and the new cabin that all of them had gotten recently, money was of no trouble to his parents, therefore no trouble to him.

"It looks perfect for Max," I admitted, despite the sky-high price.

"If it's for Max, my mom will no doubt be fine with it," he observed. "She's in love with Max, it's crazy. She's like the daughter that my mother has always wanted."

Poor Ella, I thought. But then again, Ella was lucky to have parents at all.

"Max can be charming if she-

I stopped mid-sentence with a sudden rupture in my stomach. This was when I learned that morning sickness didn't just involve the morning, it can be at any time of the day, anywhere without any warning whatsoever. Fang gave me a strange look.

"How many times have I told you to stop eating that cafeteria food?!" He sighed. "It's horrible for you!"

I grimaced shakily and ran towards the counter, where I had seen a trashcan before. In my hurry, I dropped my bag, my papers, including the ultrasound of the baby, scattering everywhere. Fang looked back and forth between the paper and me and my stomach, his mind putting a bajillion pieces of a jigsaw puzzle together at once.

"If you tell Max..." I told him in a threatening tone, forgetting the urge to throw up in the middle of the store.

"I won't say a word," he promised, starting to pick up all of my papers off of the floor.

I breathed a sigh of relief. The last thing I needed was Fang telling Max that I was pregnant.

"As long as..." I crossed my arms and glared at him. "The kid's middle name is Fang or Nick."

Another sigh of relief, accompanied by an eye roll.

"Hey, at least Uncle Fang has a sense of humor."

* * *

**So yeah...I know Max needs to find out before Fang in ideal circumstances, but...I thought that this would be an interesting dynamic between Nudge and Fang since these two haven't really had any interaction quite yet. Besides...these aren't the ideal circumstances, is it? Hehe...**

**On the bright side...I made this one a little bit longer :)**


	28. Chapter 28

**Oh my god guys! So many reviews; like 20 in less than two days. I feel so amazing. And you people actually gave me feedback this time! That was the best part. Anyways, you guys made me feel so empowered that I decided to shoot this one out as soon as possible because I've been thinking about this scene for weeks if not months. I felt like Fang has a girlfriend, a little sister, but he also needs a female best friend to complain to about the rest of the females without her ratting him out. So...the Silent One and the Chatterbox are coming together officially to make kick ass partners in crime (you'll see later ;) **

**To answer some questions about Nudge's pregnancy, she's three months pregnant. Some people are noticable at a month a half while some, like my aunt, were hardly noticable until at least four months pregnant. She was fairly skinny at first. But, as you'll see in this chapter, Max is starting to notice some things about Nudge. At the moment, there's just too much going on in Max's head to put two and two together about her best friend being pregnant. **

**Anyways, I'll stop being a Nudge and move on with the story, sorry :P **

* * *

**Max POV**

Nudge and Fang were acting really strange, like freakishly strange ever since Wednesday. I've never seen either of them act this wierd...and that's saying something. I knew that Nudge had been hiding something from me for a while, but I was going to let her tell me in her own time. To be fair, I did lie to her about a lot of stuff that had gone on at home for a while. But with the way Fang was acting now, I sensed that he was keeping something from me as well. Maybe something had happened with those two and they were both hiding the same thing. It could be a possibility that Fang found out her secret...he had a knack for that, and apparently not with just me judging by their behavior.

"Mom wants all of us to come to dinner tonight," Fang informed me. "My dad is very excited about meeting you."

I almost choked on my chicken burrito from the Mexican place just down the street from school. Ella had ditched the last ten mintues of fourth period in order to get the stuff for us. Good thinking on her part because that place was filled out the doors within five minutes after school got out for lunch.

Their dad? Of course I knew that Ella and Fang had a dad. I had just never really thought about it. Think about it like this; you know your parents have sex (they had to in order to have you, unless you're adopted), but it never really hits you unless someone mentions it or you see it for yourself. Same thing with this. Until now, I hadn't given any thought to meeting their dad, even though I had met their mom. Even though I was perfectly sure that he was absolutely fine, I was paranoid about any fatherly-type figures at the time. Could you really blame me?

"That sounds great," I forced out. It wasn't like I didn't want to meet him...I just really wanted to wait for a couple more weeks or even months, considering I was still getting over what my dad did to me for a year. "What time?"

"Six," Ella piped in.

I was just halfway through my burrito when Nudge had already scarfed down two and was halfway through a third one. Damn, the girl had an appetite...and to be honest, it was starting to catch up with her slightly. Not that she was fat, she was finally just not as skinny as a rail anymore.

"Can't wait."

* * *

Nudge POV

Max and I hung outside of school at least once every couple of weeks. For the last year we always hung out at my house for obvious reasons. But for the last month or so, we hadn't hung out once. I could tell that Max was bothered by that. Since I was living with Iggy now...

"I want to say hi to Anne," Max told me. "I haven't seen her in so long."

Oh, by the way, Max, I don't live with her anymore.

"She's got a cold right now," I lied smoothly. "She doesn't want to see anyone right now. She barely lets me around her."

Max didn't even like Anne. It was just an excuse to come over to my house. Which would be perfectly fine if I still lived there. I couldn't keep pulling this off much longer. Sooner or later she would stop straight by my house unannounced and Anne would accidentally spill everything.

"You still need to come over to our new house," she insisted.

I still couldn't believe that Ella and Fang's mom actually just bought them a cabin. It had already been amazing to me that Fang even had his own apartment. Now they had a house of their own. Three bedroom, not to mention the attic that we were going to turn into a art room for Max. Unfortunately, I still needed to see how that was.

"Definitely," I agreed.

That is, after I told her everything."

* * *

**Max POV**

I had dressed up, but after seeing Fang's mom, I felt like I was in rags and a paper bag. She didn't treat me like it at least. Ella actually had to subtly give me a shove from behind in order to get me inside of the house I had only been inside of once. Last time I was here, I certainly hadn't dreamed of the possibilites of my next visit.

"We're having chicken fettecine, I hope that's alright with you," she greeted us.

"Sounds amazing," I responded.

Their dad was in the kitchen. At first I thought that Fang had somehow gotten in front of me and made it into the kitchen before me. That's how much Fang looked like his dad. He looked like one of those classic mid-forties Italian actors on the soap operas. Now I see where Fang got his good looks from. I was hoping he wasn't quite as cocky as his son, though. Although, by looking at the house, he would seem to have the right to be.

"Well if it isn't it the infamous Max," he remarked, coming towards me with open arms. I see the touchy feel Italian cultural also came along with him.

Mwa, mwa. He kissed both cheeks with no holding back. I went along with it, not wanting to be rude. Glancing at Fang, he rose his eye-brows in slight irratation with a 'welcome to the family' look towards me. I could have sworn he _chuckled _at my response.

"I've heard so much about you from my wife," he stated. "It's an honor to finally get to meet you."

"And it's nice to meet you as well," I reciprocated.

But I wasn't going to lie, Fang hadn't hardly said a word about his father, besides the fact that he mentioned his dad was...expressive with his emotions and he was a doctor in some complicated field of medicine. He was the only one on our side of the state, that's how rare his kind was. Oh, and his name was Giovanni (that's when I had confirmed my suspicions about my Italian theory for Fang).Other than that, I knew nothing about him.

"Dinner is on the table," Fang's mom announced.

"Where do you want me to sit, Mrs. Rider?" I asked, approaching the dinnette that they had in the kitchen area. Their dining table in the dining room was much, much larger than this one, which was circular table still big enough to fix up to six on.

"Helen, honey," she corrected me. "Mrs. Rider sounds so old and formal. And you can sit anywhere that you want."

For some reason, Helen seemed to fit her perfectly. So elegant, without being a stuck up bitch.

I plopped down ungracefully in a chair between Ella and Fang.

"So Max, tell me, is my son playing nice?" His dad looked mockingly stern at his son. "One word from you and I will set him straight, I promise."

I grinned devilishly at Fang. "His hair products takes up more space in the bathroom that all of my stuff combined."

"Well at least I do something with my hair," he defended. "Ms 'brush it and call it good'."

"And yet it still looks better than yours," Ella retorted in my defense.

"Children," Helen inturrupted. "No fighting at the dinner table."

After the best dinner I've had since my mom died, and a cheesecake to utterly die for, Fang's dad gestured for me to follow him while Ella and Fang were distracted with their mom in the kitchen. I trailed him outside onto the back patio, where he had already started a fire in an area cleared out just for that purpose.

Neither of Fang's parents didn't really take notice that my parents seemed to cease to exist in my life. They weren't questioning where I came from. Even for parents as welcoming as Fang and Ella's, it still seemed strange to me.

"It must seem like I'm...escalating things quickly." He seemed apologetic. "But in the course of barely over a month, you've changed my son in a way that I never thought he would be changed. Fang's always been good in school, had lots of friends. But he's never really had anything or anyone to truly live for."

"And I am?" I asked.

"He's never been so dedicated to something," he observed. "I mean, look at him."

We both looked at Fang through the window. He was laughing with mom and Ella. I could tell that Ella was telling a story because she had that sly little grin that she always got when telling a funny joke or story. Another thing with Ella... I still couldn't believe that this family could send her off to the boarding schools like they did. Everyone seemed to get along just fine at dinner. No tension that I could sense.

"And then look at Ella," he remarked. "You've changed something in her too. She doesn't resent us as much anymore. Been here for a couple weeks now and no arrests have been made."

I silently laughed. Ella was a sweetheard, but she was most definitely an authority denier. "I'm a little confused...what are you trying to say?"

"I'm saying...you've given this family more than we could possibly give you," he claimed.

But he was so wrong. This family...had given me a family again. And that's the most any family can give someone like me.

* * *

**So watcha think? Finally the big family dinner. Didn't turn out quite as I imagined but hey? Gotta let the story do its talking, right? **


	29. Chapter 29

**Its hard to keep up with stories when I have an AP test coming up and my GPA is all the way down to (gasp) 3.8, so therefore I have to work my ass off to get my grades up (my parents hate anything below a 4.0. Just because we adopted an Asian kid does not mean that they're Asian as well). **

**But...you guys are worth it for sure :). **

**Fang POV (third person)**

It was wierd to Fang that Max's dad hadn't come to their school to claim Max. He was prepared for it because he had eyes and ears everywhere. Perks of being on top of the high school food chain. In a matter of seconds, he could get Max out of class and be the hell out of here before her dad made it to her classroom. But nothing had happened.

Yet.

So he was surprised when he got a text about another male here to see Max.

_19 or 20, name's Iggy. Thought u mite want 2 kno._

The name sounded familiar, he might have met him before. Then he remembered the guy that had dropped Max off at his old place just a matter of weeks ago. It seemed so much longer than that. Anyways, it was her brother. The one that didn't want their dad around Max anymore than he did. He sighed with relief. On the other hand, he wondered what her brother would want with her in the middle of the school day.

* * *

**Max POV **

When they called me down to the office, telling me that someone was waiting for me, my heart jumped just for a second. I knew that Fang had a system set up if my dad ever dared set foot in this school, even though he would never admit it. But at the same time, what if his system wasn't fast enough? I walked to the office really slowly, just in case.

To my relief (and irratation) it was Iggy. "What are you doing here?" I asked, under my breath, I added. "THis is the second time that you've pulled this stunt."

"Relax, I'm not taking you out of school this time," he whipstered, but spoke loudly so that the secratary could hear him. "Dad wanted me to drop this off for you. He's um...going out of town for a while."

I raised an eyebrow, and began opening the envelope that he had given me, but he covered my hand with his and shook his head. "Don't open it until you get home."

"Who is Max staying with?" The secratary asked concerned.

None of your goddamn fucking business, I wanted to tell the eavesdropper. But Iggy would probably frown upon that kind of language coming out of my mouth. As always, he decided to take the freaking polite route.

"Oh, she's staying with me," he assured her. "I just won't be home when she gets there so I wanted to give it to her now."

To be honest, it did make logical sense to bring the envelope to school when he could just leave the note on the kitchen counter. Of course, the secretary didn't know that I _wasn't _living with him, so she looked slightly confused, even saying. "You didn't have to come all the way to school."

"Yeah...didn't really think that one through," he told her sheepishly.

"I won't open it until I get home," I promised him. "Anything else?"

He shook his head. "Just...make sure you tell me when you do get home."

I nodded. I think it was code to tell him where I was currently living. "I will."

An awkward moment passed where he looked like he was going to hug me, but he settled for a fist pump. I raised an eyebrow and pumped him back, to make sure that I didn't leave him hanging.

"God you're lame," I retorted.

"That's why you love me."

* * *

**Fang's POV**

He got a text from the same guy just fifteen minutes later about Iggy.

_Caught...he wants 2 talk 2 u _

Fang sighed. Sometimes he could only get the nerds to do the dirty work while his friends were out smoking pot. This kids, Bradley, was a total dunce in the stereotypical nerd way. But Fang didn't know that he was so awkward he'd given everything away.

Iggy caught him just feet outside of the classroom and nodded his head towards the parking lot. Oh, jeez, there wasn't going to be fight, was there? I mean...he could kind of see his point of view. If some guy picked up Ella from their house without a single word and made her live with him, he'd be kind of pissed. Iggy actually looked like he could hold up his own in a fight against Fang, unlike the measly guys that made up most of the male high school population at this school. But Iggy didn't look mad, he looked slightly sentimental...and grave.

"Was he that obvious?" Fang asked him.

Iggy shook his head. "No, I've trained myself to see that kind of stuff with other people that are trained to look like they're not watching me. He's not what you would call trained."

"No," Fang agreed. "And I'm not like stalking Max or anything."

Iggy scoffed. "Right, you just keep tabs on her every minute of the day," he pointed out. "That's not stalking her at all."

Fang scratched his head sheepishly. "Your d-

"Dad," Iggy cut him off."don't worry, I've got my own people on Max. And Nudge. Except my people are more experienced. You know the new vice principal that randomly showed up out of nowhere about a month ago?"

Fang nodded.

"My guy."

"Max doesn't know, does she?" Fang asked. "And what was that about Nudge? Why her?"

"You know...that little incident at the art store the other day? That's why," Iggy raised a knowing eyebrow.

Fang cleared his throat. "But that's not what you wanted to talk to me about, was it?"

Iggy shook his head and held out something in his hand. Fang held his hand to recieve whatever it was.

"A ring?" He asked, confused.

"This is...a 'welcome to our fucked up family' present. When it's the time, give the ring to Max. She'll know where it's from," Iggy explained.

"What _is _it?"

"Our mother's engagement ring."

* * *

**So next chapter you will see whatever was in the envelope that Iggy gave Max, which is actually from her dad. **

**This last part was kind of a last minute idea, but I hope that you like it. Even though Max isn't very sentimental when it comes to the material possessions, this ring will be something in the fairly far off future that she will be ecstatic about. **


	30. Chapter 30

**So as you've probably noticed, I'm working on the developement of some of the more minor relationships rather than just Fax and Niggy. But don't fear! More of that will be coming soon! Promise. **

* * *

**Max POV**

I had shoved the letter in my backpack as soon as I got to my locker. Opening it wasn't an option until I was alone, and that wouldn't be until later tonight after Fang had passed out on the couch while playing video games, and Ella was shut up in her room doing...whatever she did late at night.

"What's up with you, Max?" Ella asked stabbing at her salad. She was trying to be healthy and all, but that wasn't working out too well for her. By the end of the week she would be shoving chips into her face at the speed of light.

"My brother stopped by to see me today," I told them, even though Fang didn't look a bit surprised.

"What'd he have to say?" Fang inquired.

"He just wanted to make sure that we stay in touch and stuff, you know?" I shrugged to make sure to put my brother's visit off as a small deal.

Looks like my lying skills were sticking with me.

* * *

**Ella POV**

They had no idea...

When they thought I was doing homework, I was actually hacking. It was just a little hobby of mine, but it was starting to become bigger and bigger. To the point that recruitors from places like Apple and Goodle were trying to get me on their side to make sure that I didn't end up on opposite side instead. Of course I denied them, because if they knew my real age...

The bad thing about living with just three people is the lack of variety of people that could have done this. At a lot of my boarding schools, there were so many kids like me that people would never figure out who did it. And since there were so many of us, they didn't even bother. But here? Fang had the computer skills of an ape, if that, and Max's track was practically perfect.

"Ella?"

In one click of a button, I had everything shut down to make it look like I had been watching cats on Youtube. You know, the thing that other thirteen year old girls do.

It was Max, which was fine. If Fang opened the door, even with knocking, he'd be dead.

"Can I help you?" I asked.

Max opened the door and shut it quickly behind her, as if playing hide and seek with Fang.

"What are you thinking?" She asked.

She wasn't in here for any reason, which was odd because Max seemed like the type of girl to always have a reason to do something.

"I'm thinking that...I don't want to go to school tomorrow," I told her, which was true. Then again, what kids really like going to school? "And you?"

"I was thinking that I'm going to kill your brother if he doesn't stop asking me questions," she sighed. "It's only a matter of time before he finds me here."

I resisted the urge to snicker. Fangie boy hadn't truly liked a girl before, so he was going overboard with everything. He had no idea what it was like to be in a balanced relationship, at least not in a real one. He had dated a couple girls throughout high school, fooled around with a dozen more.

"You can stay in here as long as you like," I offered. "I can't garuntee that he won't find you."

"I just need ten minutes," she let out a breath of relief.

I shut down my laptop, to make Max feel like I cared. Which, I did, but I've neer been good at girl talk. Or talking in general. Max was my opportunity to change that a little bit. Not that Max would be into shoes and stuff like that. If I wanted to talk about girly stuff, I would go straight to Nudge.

"What kind of questions is he asking you?"

"Favorites. Like favorite color and all that. He asked me what my favorite type of cheese is." She rolled her eyes at that. "I swear his next question is going to be what my favorite type of nail polish is."

"How did you get away?"

"I told him that I had to go to the bathroom. Which is why I give myself at least five minutes."

"It's already been three," I forewarned her.

She belly flopped on my bed and let out a muffled scream into my pillow. "I shouldn't be like this."

"Like what?"

"I don't know. You guys have given me a place to live in order to escape my father. Not only a place to stay, but my own room. And your mom mentioned something about getting me my own car...which is ridiculous because I don't have my license yet."

"Please, Fang didn't give you all of this stuff, my mother did. Fang and I have never worked a day in our lives," I pointed out. "It's not about the material things that you guys give each other, it's about the thought behind it. And believe me, I you've done just as much for him as he's done for you."

She looked just as shocked as I felt. Maybe I wasn't too bad at being deep after all.

* * *

**Max POV**

I waited long after everyone else had gone to bed before I dug the letter out of my backpack. At first, I wondered if I should really read it. Did I really want to know what my dad thought? Did I want to know what my dad thought justified doing all of those horrible things to me? On the other hand, maybe it would give me some closure, he was my father after all.

Carefully, I opened the envelope and slowly unfolded the letter.

_Dear Max, _

_How long has it been? A month? Month and a half?_

_It doesn't matter anymore because you needed to get away from me, for the sake of both of us. I don't know what I'm capable of, and it would kill me if I ended your life. I would hope that I wasn't capable of that. But who knows? Before your mom died, I would have never thought that I was capable of so much as smacking you. _

_There's absolutely no excuse for what I have done to you. I just want you to know that around you, I'm never really me. I'm so drunk because you remind me so much of your mother. At first, that was the only reason. But after beating you up so many times while I was drunk, I couldn't stand to face you sober. That's why you never saw me, because I was too much of a coward to own up to what I did. _

_I was so angry at you, for looking and being so much like your mother. In some twisted way, I blamed you for the car accident. Now I want you to know that just because your mother was driving to go pick you up, it's not your fault. Never has been and never will be. _

_For now, it's best that we don't see each other. Maybe time will at least stitch up some of the wounds that have been created for this last year. I'm going out of town for this purpose, I have a job offer from an old college buddy in Illinoise. I don't know exactly when I'm coming back, but I'm thinking in six or seven months. It's hard to believe that you'll be a junior by then. _

_You're growing up fast, so I don't want to miss everything. Now I will understand if you don't want me to go to your graduation or wedding, but promise me that you'll at least send pictures? The address is on the back of the letter, for future reference. And Iggy's also got it if you should decide to tear up and burn this letter, for which I couldn't blame you one bit. _

_I'm not going to contact you again until you contact me, when you're ready. _

_Hopefully you've recieved your mother's unconditional forgiveness, because that's what I'm asking from you._

_-Dad _

* * *

**What did you think? **


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